Date: Sun, 21 Dec 2003 19:45:09 -0500 From: Bill Moran <wmoran@potentialtech.com> To: "Gary W. Swearingen" <underway@comcast.net> Cc: chat@freebsd.org Subject: Re: More trivia: origin of the wheel group Message-ID: <3FE63E95.2020201@potentialtech.com> In-Reply-To: <o9vfo9930c.fo9@mail.comcast.net> References: <3FE500F4.3060108@potentialtech.com> <o9vfo9930c.fo9@mail.comcast.net>
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Gary W. Swearingen wrote: > Bill Moran <wmoran@potentialtech.com> writes: > >>Does anyone know why the wheel group is called "wheel"? I mean, why not >>"admins" or something like that. "wheel" certainly is a cryptic name for >>the administrators group. Anyone have any idea why it's called "wheel"? > > Seems obvious to me. "Big wheel" was slang for "one who calls the > shots" or "VIP" as long as I can remember. And "wheel" was common > slang for "big wheel". Some sys admin must have seen sys admins as > qualifying. Why "big wheel" had that meaning, I can only guess, but I > suspect it came from horsey days when people's importance was > pretty-well correlated with the size of their vehicle's wheels. Interesting. I can't remember ever hearing the term "Big wheel" before. Perhaps it's some local slang that is seldom used in western Pennsylvania? -- Bill Moran Potential Technologies http://www.potentialtech.com
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