What is the meaning of foo?
Created May 4, 2012
As to the origin of the term...
From The Jargon File:
When `foo' is used in connection with `bar' it has generally
traced to the WWII-era Army slang acronym FUBAR (`F**ked Up
Beyond All Repair'), later modified to foobar. Early versions
of the Jargon File interpreted this change as a post-war
bowdlerization, but it it now seems more likely that FUBAR was
itself a derivative of `foo' perhaps influenced by German
`furchtbar' (terrible) - `foobar' may actually have been the
original form.
From Foo Fighters FAQ:
See also:
Used very generally as a sample name for absolutely
anything, esp. programs and files (esp. scratch files). ...
Near the end of WWII, the U.S. Air Force patrolling German airspace
encountered highly maneuverable balls of light in the area between
Hagenau in Alsace-Lorraine and Neustadt an der Weinstrasse in the
Rhine Valley. These unidentified flying objects came to be referred to
as "Foo Fighters", or "Kraut Balls" by those who believed the objects
were a secret German weapon.