WhatIs

/L-O-M-B-N-I-O/

adj. Used to describe a person who is technically brilliant but can't seem to communicate with human beings effectively. Technically it describes a machine that has lots of processing power but is bottlenecked on input-output (in 1991, the IBM Rios, a.k.a. RS/6000, is a notorious recent example).

/lȯst ən t͟hə ən-dərflō/

adj. Too small to be worth considering; more specifically, small beyond the limits of accuracy or measurement. This is a reference to 'floating underflow', a condition that can occur when a floating-point arithmetic processor tries to handle quantities smaller than its limit of magnitude. It is also a pun on 'undertow' (a kind of fast, cold current that sometimes runs just offshore and can be dangerous to swimmers).

/lȯst ən t͟hə nȯiz/

adj. Syn. lost in the underflow. This term is from signal processing, where signals of very small amplitude cannot be separated from low-intensity noise in the system. Though popular among hackers, it is not confined to hackerdom; physicists, engineers, astronomers, and statisticians all use it.

/lȯsij/

n. The result of a bug or malfunction. This is a mass or collective noun. "What a loss!" and "What lossage!" are nearly synonymous. The former is slightly more particular to the speaker's present circumstances; the latter implies a continuing lose of which the speaker is currently a victim. Thus (for example) a temporary hardware failure is a loss, but bugs in an important tool (like a compiler) are serious lossage.

/lȯs/

n. Something (not a person) that loses; a situation in which something is losing. Emphatic forms include moby loss, and total loss, complete loss. Common interjections are "What a loss!" and "What a moby loss!" Note that moby loss is OK even though moby loser is not used; applied to an abstract noun, moby is simply a magnifier, whereas when applied to a person it implies substance and has positive connotations.

Compare lossage.

/lü-ziŋ/

adj. Said of anything that is or causes a lose or lossage.

/lü-zər/

n. 

An unexpectedly bad situation, program, programmer, or person. Someone who habitually loses. (Even winners can lose occasionally.) Someone who knows not and knows not that he knows not. Emphatic forms are real loser, total loser, and complete loser (but not *moby loser, which would be a contradiction in terms).

See luser.

/lüz-lüz/

interj. A reply to or comment on an undesirable situation.

"I accidentally deleted all my files!"

"Lose, lose."

/lüz/

[MIT]

vi. 1. To fail. A program loses when it encounters an exceptional condition or fails to work in the expected manner.

2. To be exceptionally unesthetic or crocky.

3. Of people, to be obnoxious or unusually stupid (as opposed to ignorant).

See also deserves to lose.

4. n. Refers to something that is losing, especially in the phrases "That's a lose!" and "What a lose!"

/lȯrd hī fik-sər/

[primarily British, from Gilbert & Sullivan's lord high executioner]

n. The person in an organization who knows the most about some aspect of a system.

See wizard.