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From: tropp@cthce.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.text
Subject: Re: TeX an acronym?
Message-ID: <110@cthce.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 12-Feb-87 06:32:45 EST
Article-I.D.: cthce.110
Posted: Thu Feb 12 06:32:45 1987
Date-Received: Mon, 16-Feb-87 01:58:24 EST
References: <362@linus.UUCP> <7592@utzoo.UUCP> <7323@elsie.UUCP> <424@mipos3.UUCP>
Reply-To: tropp@cthce.UUCP (Ulf Tropp)
Organization: Dept. of Comp. Eng., Chalmers, Goeteborg, Sweden
Lines: 11
Keywords: TeX, troff

In article <424@mipos3.UUCP> martin@mipos3.UUCP (Martin Harriman) writes:
>Computer trivia:  TeX is not an acronym for anything; it's disguised
>Greek.  TEX is just Tau Epsilon Chi (to use the usual English spelling
>for the characters.

It comes from the (feminine) word (i) texni ((Eta) TauEpsilonChiNuEta)
(pronounced 'ee technee' with ch like in German ach or J in spanish Jaime,
the english speaking may try an overemphasized 'h'-sound)
which means '(the) art' or '(the) skill'. This applies to Modern Greek.

Hints of this can be seen in The TEX Book by Donald E Knuth.