| an official card, originally green, issued by the U.S. government to foreign nationals permitting them to work in the U.S. |
| green card n. An official document issued by the U.S. government to aliens, allowing them to work legally in the United States. [Formerly a green-colored card.] |
green card
[after the "IBM System/360 Reference Data" card] A summary of an assembly language, even if the colour is not green. Less frequently used now because of the decrease in the use of assembly language. "I'll go get my green card so I can check the addressing mode for that instruction." Some green cards are actually booklets.
The original green card became a yellow card when the System/370 was introduced, and later a yellow booklet. An anecdote from IBM refers to a scene that took place in a programmers' terminal room at Yorktown in 1978. A luser overheard one of the programmers ask another "Do you have a green card?" The other grunted and passed the first a thick yellow booklet. At this point the luser turned a delicate shade of olive and rapidly left the room, never to return.
[The Jargon File]