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tty: /T·T·Y/, /tit´ee/, n. The latter pronunciation was primarily ITS, but some Unix people say
it this way as well; this pronunciation is not
considered to have sexual undertones. 1. A terminal of the teletype variety, characterized by a noisy
mechanical printer, a very limited character set, and poor print quality.
Usage: antiquated (like the TTYs themselves). See also
bit-paired keyboard. 2. [especially Unix] Any terminal at all; sometimes used to refer to
the particular terminal controlling a given job. 3. [Unix] Any serial port, whether or not the device connected to it
is a terminal; so called because under Unix such devices have names of the
form tty*. Ambiguity between senses 2 and 3 is common but seldom
bothersome.
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