linux.conf.au/debiancon: January 2003
Recent EMail Thread: Linux Kernel Mailing List

From: "Mark H. Wood" <mwood@IUPUI.Edu>
To: Bill Davidsen <davidsen@tmr.com>

On Fri, 8 Nov 2002, Bill Davidsen wrote:
> On Thu, 7 Nov 2002, Rusty Russell wrote:
> > In message <Pine.LNX.3.96.1021106113408.24531B-100000@gatekeeper.tmr.com> you write:
[snip]
> > > Eschew obfuscation.
> >
> > Sorry, I don't understand?
> eschew = roughly "avoid" or "stay away from"
Or "choose not to use".  One does not say, "eschew that bear."
> obfuscation = the process of making something obscure

And the whole thing ("eschew obfuscation") is a stock expression in
English, meaning "don't use unfamiliar words when familiar words will
express what you mean."  There's an implied self-reference:  "eschew
obfuscation" is a very obscure way of saying "keep it simple".  It's
mildly funny.

-- 
Mark H. Wood, amateur linguist   mwood@IUPUI.Edu
MS Windows *is* user-friendly, but only for certain values of "user".