twonkie
/twon'kee/ The software equivalent of a Twinkie (a variety of sugar-loaded junk food, or (in gay slang) the male equivalent of "chick"); a useless "feature" added to look sexy and placate a marketroid.
Compare Saturday-night special.
The term may also be related to "The Twonky", title menace of a classic SF short story by Lewis Padgett (Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore), first published in the September 1942 "Astounding Science Fiction" and subsequently much anthologised.
[The Jargon File]
(1994-10-20)