1. n. The soft electronic 'bell' sound of a
display terminal (except for a VT-52); a beep (in fact, the
microcomputer world seems to prefer beep).
2. vi. To cause
the display to make a feep sound. ASR-33s (the original TTYs) do
not feep; they have mechanical bells that ring. Alternate forms:
beep, 'bleep', or just about anything suitably
onomatopoeic. (Jeff MacNelly, in his comic strip "Shoe", uses
the word 'eep' for sounds made by computer terminals and video
games; this is perhaps the closest written approximation yet.) The
term 'breedle' was sometimes heard at SAIL, where the terminal
bleepers are not particularly soft (they sound more like the
musical equivalent of a raspberry or Bronx cheer; for a close
approximation, imagine the sound of a Star Trek communicator's beep
lasting for 5 seconds). The 'feeper' on a VT-52 has been
compared to the sound of a '52 Chevy stripping its gears.
See also ding.
