feep

/feep/ 1. 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. 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 five seconds). The

"feeper" on a VT-52 has been compared to the sound of a '52

Chevy stripping its gears. See also ding.

[Jargon File]