[common] The Macintosh key with the cloverleaf graphic on its
keytop; sometimes referred to as flower, pretzel, clover, propeller, beanie (an apparent reference to the major
feature of a propeller beanie), splat, open-apple or (officially, in Mac
documentation) the command key. In
French, the term papillon (butterfly) has
been reported. The proliferation of terms for this creature may illustrate
one subtle peril of iconic interfaces.
Many people have been mystified by the cloverleaf-like symbol that
appears on the feature key. Its oldest name is ‘cross of St.
Hannes’, but it occurs in pre-Christian Viking art as a decorative
motif. Throughout Scandinavia today the road agencies use it to mark sites
of historical interest. Apple picked up the symbol from an early Mac
developer who happened to be Swedish. Apple documentation gives the
translation “interesting feature”!
There is some dispute as to the proper (Swedish) name of this symbol.
It technically stands for the word
sevärdhet (thing worth seeing); many of
these are old churches. Some Swedes report as an idiom for the sign the
word kyrka, cognate to English
‘church’ and pronounced (roughly) /chur´ka/ in modern Swedish. Others
say this is nonsense. Other idioms reported for the sign are
runa (rune) or runsten /roon´stn/ (runestone), derived from
the fact that many of the interesting features are Viking rune-stones. The
term fornminne /foorn´min'@/ (relic of
antiquity, ancient monument) is also reported, especially among those who
think that the Mac itself is a relic of antiquity.
