FUD

/fuhd/ An acronym invented by Gene Amdahl after he left IBM to found his own company: "FUD is the fear, uncertainty, and doubt that IBM sales people instill in the minds of potential customers who might be considering [Amdahl] products." The idea, of course, was to persuade them to go with safe IBM gear rather than with competitors' equipment. This implicit coercion was traditionally accomplished by promising that Good Things would happen to people who stuck with IBM, but Dark Shadows loomed over the future of competitors' equipment or software.

[Jargon File]

(1995-05-23)

Source: The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (27 SEP 03)
 

Fud \Fud\, n. [Of uncertain origin.]

1. The tail of a hare, coney, etc. [Prov. Eng. & Scot.]

--Burns. [1913 Webster]

2. Woolen waste, for mixing with mungo and shoddy. [1913 Webster]

Source: The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
 

35 Moby Thesaurus words for "fud": Methuselah, antediluvian, antique, back number, conservative, dad, dodo, elder, fogy, fossil, fuddy-duddy, granny, has-been, longhair, matriarch, mid-Victorian, mossback, old believer, old crock, old dodo, old fogy, old liner, old man, old poop, old woman, old-timer, patriarch, pop, pops, reactionary, regular old fogy, relic, square, starets, traditionalist

Source: Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0
 

Fud \Fud\, n. [Of uncertain origin.]

1. The tail of a hare, coney, etc. [Prov. Eng. & Scot.]

--Burns.

2. Woolen waste, for mixing with mungo and shoddy.

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)