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Coined by Richard Stallman in 1983 as a recursive acronym for “GNU's Not Unix”, following convention of naming programs similar to or inspired by existing programs as “(New Name) Is Not (Old Name)”; compare Xinu.
Specifically influenced by lack of English words of form ?nu (“?NU is Not Unix”), that gnu is the alphabetically first (and in fact only) English word of the form ?nu (“?’s Not Unix”), that gnu was perceived as a humorous word, and the existence of the song The Gnu.
^ Richard Stallman (2006 March 9) “The Free Software Movement and the Future of Freedom: The name "GNU"”, in Free Software Foundation Europe, archived from the original on 2015-03-16
