World War II Forum: Definition of fubar (foobar)

Posted by: Chris Whitten (chris@ThisIsToPreventSpam-945-RemoveThis.interesting.com) on 1 May 2003 at 1:39:36 PM
In-Reply-To: My Top 5 WWII Movies posted by Mardev Deveza on 7:08:22 AM 18 Dec 2002

: (i still don't know what foobar or 'fubahr' is...)
:

In case you're still pondering over this one ... :-)

FUBAR is an acronym. It stands for F*cked Up Beyond All Recognition. It was a common expression of utter frustration, and I think, the futility of worrying about things you can't change, i.e. "It's a mess. Forget it."

Foobar is used differently. That's a modern computer hacker's term. I think it's generally used as a placeholder. A convenient nonsense word.

See http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=foo

That page has an interesting paragraph on "foo fighters."

I think etymology is fascinating.

Chris

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