26 lines
3.9 KiB
HTML
26 lines
3.9 KiB
HTML
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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1" standalone="no"?>
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<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><title>feature key</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="../../jargon.css" type="text/css"/><meta name="generator" content="DocBook XSL Stylesheets V1.61.0"/><link rel="home" href="../index.html" title="The Jargon File"/><link rel="up" href="../F.html" title="F"/><link rel="previous" href="feature-creep.html" title="feature creep"/><link rel="next" href="feature-shock.html" title="feature shock"/></head><body><div class="navheader"><table width="100%" summary="Navigation header"><tr><th colspan="3" align="center">feature key</th></tr><tr><td width="20%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="feature-creep.html">Prev</a><EFBFBD></td><th width="60%" align="center">F</th><td width="20%" align="right"><EFBFBD><a accesskey="n" href="feature-shock.html">Next</a></td></tr></table><hr/></div><dt><a id="feature-key"/><dt xmlns="" id="feature-key"><b>feature key</b>: <span xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" class="grammar">n.</span></dt></dt><dd><p> [common] The Macintosh key with the cloverleaf graphic on its
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keytop; sometimes referred to as <span class="firstterm">flower</span>, <span class="firstterm">pretzel</span>, <span class="firstterm">clover</span>, <span class="firstterm">propeller</span>, <span class="firstterm">beanie</span> (an apparent reference to the major
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feature of a propeller beanie), <a href="../S/splat.html"><i class="glossterm">splat</i></a>, <span class="firstterm">open-apple</span> or (officially, in Mac
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documentation) the <span class="firstterm">command key</span>. In
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French, the term <span class="foreignphrase"><i class="foreignphrase">papillon</i></span> (butterfly) has
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been reported. The proliferation of terms for this creature may illustrate
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one subtle peril of iconic interfaces.</p><p>Many people have been mystified by the cloverleaf-like symbol that
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appears on the feature key. Its oldest name is ‘cross of St.
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Hannes’, but it occurs in pre-Christian Viking art as a decorative
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motif. Throughout Scandinavia today the road agencies use it to mark sites
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of historical interest. Apple picked up the symbol from an early Mac
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developer who happened to be Swedish. Apple documentation gives the
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translation “<span class="quote">interesting feature</span>”!</p><p>There is some dispute as to the proper (Swedish) name of this symbol.
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It technically stands for the word
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<span class="foreignphrase"><i class="foreignphrase">sev<EFBFBD>rdhet</i></span> (thing worth seeing); many of
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these are old churches. Some Swedes report as an idiom for the sign the
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word <span class="firstterm">kyrka</span>, cognate to English
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‘church’ and pronounced (roughly) <span class="pronunciation">/chur<75>ka/</span> in modern Swedish. Others
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say this is nonsense. Other idioms reported for the sign are
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<span class="foreignphrase"><i class="foreignphrase">runa</i></span> (rune) or <span class="firstterm">runsten</span> <span class="pronunciation">/roon<6F>stn/</span> (runestone), derived from
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the fact that many of the interesting features are Viking rune-stones. The
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term <span class="foreignphrase"><i class="foreignphrase">fornminne</i></span> <span class="pronunciation">/foorn<72>min'@/</span> (relic of
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antiquity, ancient monument) is also reported, especially among those who
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think that the Mac itself is a relic of antiquity.</p></dd><div class="navfooter"><hr/><table width="100%" summary="Navigation footer"><tr><td width="40%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="feature-creep.html">Prev</a><EFBFBD></td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="u" href="../F.html">Up</a></td><td width="40%" align="right"><EFBFBD><a accesskey="n" href="feature-shock.html">Next</a></td></tr><tr><td width="40%" align="left" valign="top">feature creep<65></td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="h" href="../index.html">Home</a></td><td width="40%" align="right" valign="top"><EFBFBD>feature shock</td></tr></table></div></body></html>
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