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The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (foldoc)

/muhng/ (MIT, 1960) Mash Until No Good.

Sometime after that the derivation from the {recursive
acronym} "Mung Until No Good" became standard. 1. To make
changes to a file, especially large-scale and irrevocable
changes.

See {BLT}.

2. To destroy, usually accidentally, occasionally maliciously.
The system only mungs things maliciously; this is a
consequence of {Finagle's Law}.

See {scribble}, {mangle}, {trash}, {nuke}.

Reports from {Usenet} suggest that the pronunciation /muhnj/
is now usual in speech, but the spelling "mung" is still
common in program comments (compare the widespread confusion
over the proper spelling of {kluge}).

3. The kind of beans of which the sprouts are used in Chinese
food. (That's their real name! Mung beans! Really!)

Like many early hacker terms, this one seems to have
originated at {TMRC}; it was already in use there in 1958.
Peter Samson (compiler of the original TMRC lexicon) thinks it
may originally have been onomatopoeic for the sound of a relay
spring (contact) being twanged. However, it is known that
during the World Wars, "mung" was army slang for the ersatz
creamed chipped beef better known as "SOS".

[{Jargon File}]

(1994-12-02)