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frobnitz. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
frobnitz, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
frobnitz in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
frobnitz you have here. The definition of the word
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English
Etymology
Coined c. 1958 by David R. Sawyer of the MIT Tech Model Railroad Club (TMRC) as a fanciful name for model railroad parts, perhaps originally as a proper noun.[1] More general use presumably dates from the 1960s, as it is not found in the TMRC dictionaries of 1959 or 1960.[2]
Noun
frobnitz (plural frobnitzes)
- Synonym of gizmo
Derived terms
References
- ^ Eric S Raymond, editor (2003 December 29), “frobnicate”, in The Jargon File, version 4.4.7, quoting Peter Samson: “Under the TMRC layout were many storage boxes, managed (in 1958) by David R. Sawyer. Several had fanciful designations written on them, such as ‘Frobnitz Coil Oil’. Perhaps DRS intended Frobnitz to be a proper name, but the name was quickly taken for the thing”.
- ^ Peter R. Samson (1959 June) An Abridged Dictionary of the TMRC Language, first annotated edition, Tech Model Railroad Club of MIT, published 2005, archived from the original on 2007-07-07; Peter R. Samson (1960) An Abridged Dictionary of the TMRC Language, second annotated edition, Tech Model Railroad Club of MIT, published 2005, archived from the original on 2007-05-04.
Further reading
- “frobnitz”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.