Agnostic (non-theological)

[Jeff Prucher]

"Agnostic" in a non-theological sense has been used in the software world for at least a few years (from personal experience, anyway -- I haven't tried to do a deep search on this). In my understanding of the term, if a program is hardware agnostic, it should be able to run without regard to the hardware it's being run on; i.e, the software "doesn't know" what the hardware is. A Google search on "agnostic program" yields a slew of relevant results.

Jeff Prucher

Editor, Brave New Words: The Oxford Dictionary of Science Fiction
http://www.jeffprucher.com

----- Original Message ----
From: Scot LaFaive <scotlafaive at GMAIL.COM>
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Sent: Monday, February 4, 2008 7:04:30 PM
Subject: Re: Agnostic (non-theological)


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Scot
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<scotlafaive at GMAIL.COM>
Subject:


Re:
Agnostic
(non-theological)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Attributing
the
neutral
characteristic
Switzerland
to
someone
does
seem
more
readily
available
within
my
own
lexicon,
but
I've
never
considered
using
"agnostic"
in
non-theological
ways.

Scot

On
Feb
4,
2008
8:51
PM,
David
Donnell
<David.Donnell at earthlink.net>
wrote:

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David
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<David.Donnell at EARTHLINK.NET>
>
Subject:


Re:
Agnostic
(non-theological)
>
>
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
Similarly,
I
recently
heard
a
twentysomething
South
African
woman
(my
>
South
Af
wife's
niece)
use
the
expression
"I'm
Switzerland"...
>
meaning,
mas
o
menos,
'I'm
agnostic'
on
a
>
certain
issue.
>
>
I
had
never
heard
that
one
before...
But
apparently
it's
well-known
>
(according
to
the
experts
at
Google
University,
at
least).
>
>
DD
>
Missourian
@
NYC
>
>
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>Sender:



American
Dialect
Society
<ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>
>Poster:



Scot
LaFaive
<scotlafaive at GMAIL.COM>
>
>Subject:


Agnostic
(non-theological)
>
>
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
>
>Today
on
"All
Things
Considered"
(NPR),
in
response
to
Robert
Siegel
>
saying
>
>he
was
a
New
York
Giants
fan,
Michele
Norris
said
she
was
"agnostic
in
>
this
>
>case,"
i.e.
not
claiming
allegiance
to
either
the
Giants
or
the
Patriots.
>
>
>
>Scot
>
>
>
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