Result from Foreign Dictionaries (3 entries found)
From The Jargon File (version 4.4.7, 29 Dec 2003) [jargon]:
VAX
/vaks/, n.
1. [from Virtual Address eXtension] The most successful minicomputer design
in industry history, possibly excepting its immediate ancestor, the
{PDP-11}. Between its release in 1978 and its eclipse by {killer micro}s
after about 1986, the VAX was probably the hacker's favorite machine of
them all, esp. after the 1982 release of 4.2 BSD Unix (see {BSD}).
Especially noted for its large, assembler-programmer-friendly instruction
set ? an asset that became a liability after the RISC revolution.
It is worth noting that the standard plural of VAX was ?vaxen? and that VAX
system operators were sometimes referred to as ?vaxherds?
2. A major brand of vacuum cleaner in Britain. Cited here because its sales
pitch, ?Nothing sucks like a VAX!? became a sort of battle-cry of RISC
partisans. It is even sometimes claimed that DEC actually entered a
cross-licensing deal with the vacuum-Vax people that allowed them to market
VAX computers in the U.K. in return for not challenging the vacuum cleaner
trademark in the U.S.
A rival brand actually pioneered the slogan: its original form was ?Nothing
sucks like Electrolux?. It has apparently become a classic example (used in
advertising textbooks) of the perils of not knowing the local idiom. But in
1996, the press manager of Electrolux AB, while confirming that the company
used this slogan in the late 1960s, also tells us that their marketing
people were fully aware of the possible double entendre and intended it to
gain attention.
And gain attention it did ? the VAX-vacuum-cleaner people thought the
slogan a sufficiently good idea to copy it. Several British hackers report
that VAX's promotions used it in 1986--1987, and we have one report from a
New Zealander that the infamous slogan surfaced there in TV ads for the
product in 1992.
From V.E.R.A. -- Virtual Entity of Relevant Acronyms (June 2013) [vera]:
VAX
Virtual Address eXtension (DEC, VAX)
From Swedish-English FreeDict Dictionary ver. 0.1.1 [fd-swe-eng]:
vax
wax
แสดงได้ทั้งความหมายของคำเดี่ยว และคำผสม ได้อย่างถูกต้อง
เช่น Secretary of State=รัฐมนตรีต่างประเทศของสหรัฐฯ (ในภาพตัวอย่าง),
High school=โรงเรียนมัธยมปลาย
