gweep

/gweep/ To hack, usually at night, or one who does so. At

WPI, from 1977 onward, gweeps could often be found at the

College Computing Center punching cards or crashing the

PDP-10 or, later, the DEC-20. The term has survived the

demise of those technologies, however, and is still alive in

late 1991. "I'm going to go gweep for a while. See you in

the morning." "I gweep from 8 PM till 3 AM during the week."

"Gweep" originated as an onomatopeiac term, evoking the sound

of the (once-ubiquitous) Hazeltine 9000 terminals' bell on

WPI campus.

A gweep is one step above a fweep.

[Jargon File]

(1995-01-31)