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nybble: /nibīl/, nibble, n. [from v. nibble by analogy with ‘bite’
→ ‘byte’] Four bits; one hex digit;
a half-byte. Though ‘byte’ is now techspeak, this useful
relative is still jargon. Compare byte; see also
bit. The more mundane spelling “nibble”
is also commonly used. Apparently the ‘nybble’ spelling is
uncommon in Commonwealth Hackish, as British orthography would suggest the
pronunciation /ni:ībl/. Following ‘bit’, ‘byte’ and
‘nybble’ there have been quite a few analogical attempts to
construct unambiguous terms for bit blocks of other sizes. All of these
are strictly jargon, not techspeak, and not very common jargon at that
(most hackers would recognize them in context but not use them
spontaneously). We collect them here for reference together with the
ambiguous techspeak terms ‘word’, ‘half-word’,
‘double word’, and ‘quad’ or quad word; some (indicated) have substantial
information separate entries. The fundamental motivation for most of these jargon terms (aside from
the normal hackerly enjoyment of punning wordplay) is the extreme ambiguity
of the term word and its
derivatives.
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