1. EOU humour> The mnemonic of a mythical ASCII control character End Of User that would make an ASR-33 Teletype explode on receipt. This construction parodies the numerous obscure delimiter and control characters left in ASCII from the days when it was associated more with wire-service teletypes than computers e. g. FS, GS, RS, US, EM, SUB, ETX, and especially EOT. It is worth remembering that ASR-33s were big, noisy mechanical beasts with a lot of clattering parts; the notion that one might explode was nowhere near as ridiculous as it might seem to someone sitting in front of a tube or flatscreen today. [Jargon File]
eou | eoug |
