Dictionary
Thesaurus
Reference
Translate
Web
Related Searches
on Ask.com
Nearby Entries
GNU - 6 dictionary results
Open Source
Free Guide to the Open Source Stack
www.mysql.com
Gnu Definition
Find Definitions For Any Word.Get Your Free Dictionary.com Toolbar.
Dictionary.com

gnu

  [noo, nyoo]
Use GNU in a Sentence
–noun, plural gnus, (especially collectively) gnu.
either of two stocky, oxlike antelopes of the genus Connochaetes, the silver-gray, white-bearded C. taurinus of the eastern African plain and the black, white-tailed C. gnou of central South Africa: recently near extinction, the South African gnu is now protected.
Also called wildebeest.

Origin:
1770–80; < Khoikhoi, first recorded as t’gnu; prob. to be identified with ǂnû black, as applying orig. to the black wildebeest
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source Link To GNU
gnu   (nōō, nyōō)   
n.  Either of two large African antelopes (Connochaetes gnou or C. taurinus) having a drooping mane and beard, a long tufted tail, and curved horns in both sexes. Also called wildebeest.

[Probably from Dutch gnoe, from Xhosa i-ngu, white-tailed gnu, from San !nu, black wildebeest.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Cite This Source

Gnu

Gnu\, n. [Hottentot gnu, or nju: cf. F. gnou.] (Zo["o]l.) One of two species of large South African antelopes of the genus Catoblephas, having a mane and bushy tail, and curved horns in both sexes. [Written also gnoo.]

Note: The common gnu or wildebeest (Catoblephas gnu) is plain brown; the brindled gnu or blue wildebeest (C. gorgon) is larger, with transverse stripes of black on the neck and shoulders.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
Cite This Source
Language Translation for : GNU
Spanish: ñu,
German: das Gnu,
Japanese: ヌー
More Translations »

GNU

/gnoo/, _not_ /noo/
1. [acronym: `GNU's Not Unix!', see recursive acronym] A Unix-workalike development effort of the Free Software Foundation headed by Richard Stallman <>. GNU EMACS and the GNU C compiler, two tools designed for this project, have become very popular in hackerdom and elsewhere. The GNU project was designed partly to proselytize for RMS's position that information is community property and all software source should be shared. One of its slogans is "Help stamp out software hoarding!" Though this remains controversial (because it implicitly denies any right of designers to own, assign, and sell the results of their labors), many hackers who disagree with RMS have nevertheless cooperated to produce large amounts of high-quality software for free redistribution under the Free Software Foundation's imprimatur. The GNU project has a web page at `http://www.gnu.org'. See EMACS, copyleft, General Public Virus, Linux.
2. Noted Unix hacker John Gilmore <>, founder of Usenet's anarchic alt.* hierarchy.
Jargon File 4.2.0
Cite This Source

gnu 
1777, from Du. gnoe, used by Ger. traveler Georg Forster (1754-1794) to render Hottentot i-ngu "wildebeest," from Southern Bushman !nu: (in which ! and : represent clicks).
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
Cite This Source

GNU body, project
/g*noo/ 1. A recursive acronym: "GNU's Not Unix!". The Free Software Foundation's project to provide a freely distributable replacement for Unix. The GNU Manifesto was published in the March 1985 issue of Dr. Dobb's Journal but the GNU project started a year and a half earlier when Richard Stallman was trying to get funding to work on his freely distributable editor, Emacs.
Emacs and the GNU C compiler, gcc, two tools designed for this project, have become very popular. GNU software is available from many GNU archive sites.
See also Hurd.
2. John Gilmore.
[The Jargon File]
(1997-04-12)

The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing, © 1993-2007 Denis Howe
Cite This Source
Search another word or see GNU on Thesaurus | Reference
Open Source
Free Guide to the Open Source Stack
www.mysql.com