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bang


bang: 1. n. Common spoken name for `!' (ASCII 0100001),
   especially when used in pronouncing a bang path in spoken
   hackish.  In elder days this was considered a CMUish usage,
   with MIT and Stanford hackers preferring excl or shriek;
   but the spread of UNIX has carried `bang' with it (esp. via the
   term bang path) and it is now certainly the most common spoken
   name for `!'.  Note that it is used exclusively for
   non-emphatic written `!'; one would not say "Congratulations
   bang" (except possibly for humorous purposes), but if one wanted
   to specify the exact characters `foo!' one would speak "Eff oh oh
   bang".  See shriek, ASCII.  2. interj. An exclamation
   signifying roughly "I have achieved enlightenment!", or "The
   dynamite has cleared out my brain!"  Often used to acknowledge
   that one has perpetrated a thinko immediately after one has
   been called on it.