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Revision as of 23:30, 26 September 2005 by Badagnani (talk | contribs) (→FUBAR: add alternate term for the letter "F" (this version is sometimes heard))(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff) Foobar could also refer to foobar2000, a freeware media player for Microsoft Windows.Foobar
The association of two metasyntactic variables: foo and bar. These variables are often used in computer programming examples.
FUBAR
There is some folk etymology that links fubar to the metasyntactic variable, foobar. FUBAR likely had its origins in the German word Furchtbar, meaning frightful, or terrible. It is pronounced with a soft cht, and probably made the transition during World War II because foo had been popularized in American culture, appearing in a 1938 Warner Brothers Daffy Duck cartoon and the comic strip Smokey Stover. Electronics engineers say that snafu and fubar were used before the war by repairmen sent out to repair phone booths. They had to report the situation at arrival to the scene, often on a very bad line, so they developed these acronyms to make themselves understood.
Except in military and computer sciences/hacker communities, the word fubar had fallen out of use since the 1960s but has enjoyed another resurgence since it was used in the movies Tango and Cash (1989) and Saving Private Ryan (1998). FUBAR is also the title of a 2002 Canadian mockumentary.
"FUBAR" is an acronym whose most commonly accepted rendering is "Fucked (or Fouled) Up Beyond All Recognition/Repair/Reason/Redemption". There are a number of slang army acronyms that are similar to FUBAR. They include:
- FUBAR - Fucked Up Beyond All Recognition/Repair/Reason/Redemption.
- SAPFU - Surpasses All Previous Fuck Ups.
- SNAFU - Situation Normal: All Fucked Up.
- SUSFU - Situation Unchanged, Still Fucked Up.
- FUMTU - Fucked Up More Than Usual.
- FUBB - Fucked Up Beyond Belief.
- TARFU - Things Are Really Fucked Up.
- TOFU - Things Ordinary: Fucked Up.
- GFU - General Fuck Up.
- SAMFU - Self Adjusting Military Fuck Up.
- TUIFU - The Ultimate In Fuck Ups.
- FUGAZI - Fucked Up, Got Ambushed, Zipped In; Refers to out-of-control situation such as a chaotic jungle warfare combat environment
- JANFU - Joint Army/Navy Fuck-Up; apparently used by British troops in WWII.
- JAAFU - Joint Army-Air Force Fuck-Up; the use of JANFU combined with a radical increase in joint-forces operations since 1989, has led to the rare but increasing use of JAAFU.
- DILLIGAF/DILLIGAS - Do I Look Like I Give A Fuck/Shit? Interogative form of, "(It) don't mean nothing." Both often heard in Vietnam.
- TINS - This Is No Shit! Often seen in Vets' forums.
"The Fubar Suit" (1997) is also the title of a science fiction short story by Stephen Baxter.