foo() 함수의 기원

Foo is the canonical metasyntactic variable, commonly used to represent an as-yet-unspecified term, value, process, function, destination or event but seldom a person (see Ned Baker, below). It might also be an abbreviation for "File Or Object". It is sometimes combined with bar to make foobar. This suggests that foo may have originated with the World War II slang term fubar, as an acronym for fucked/fouled/"fixed" up beyond all recognition/repair, although the Jargon File makes a reasonably good case [1] that foo predates fubar. Foo was also used as a nonsense word in the surrealistic comic strip Smokey Stover that was popular in the 1940s and 1950s. See also Foo fighter for more foo etymology, as well as RFC 3092.

Another usage of foo is as an abbreviation of the phrase "forward observation officer" (or observer). Apparently FOOs used to go places well forward of normal troops in battle and leave a stylised chalk graffiti of a person looking over a wall with the words "foo was here".

Foobar is a common placeholder name used in computer programming. It has been described as "the association of two metasyntactic variables: foo and bar".