May 15, 2003

the X that can be Y is not the true X

Yet another instance of hackerdom's peculiar attraction to mystical references — a common humorous way of making exclusive statements about a class of things. The template is from the Tao te Ching: The Tao which can be spoken of is not the true Tao. The implication is often that the X is a mystery accessible only to the enlightened. See the trampoline entry for an example, and compare has the X nature.

Posted by Jargon File at May 15, 2003 10:27 AM

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