GIGO, n. Computing.
(ˈgaɪgəʊ)
Also Gigo, gigo.
[Acronym f. the initial letters of garbage in, garbage out.]
= garbage in, garbage out s.v. *garbage n. 3 b. Usu. attrib.
| 1964 T. W. McRae Impact of Computers on Accounting v. 129 If the original data supplied to us are inaccurate we have built what the Americans ironically describe as a gigo model, that is ‘garbage in—garbage out’. 1969 W. Garner Us or Them War 287 Computer men..summarize it in a little mnemonic. GIGO!.. In other words, what you get out of a computer depends entirely on what you put into it. 1973 R. A. Heinlein Time Enough for Love (1974) 368 Deductive logic..manipulates false statements as readily as true ones... The designers of the earliest computers called this the ‘Gigo Law’, i.e. ‘Garbage in, garbage out’. 1977 P. Johnson Enemies of Society vii. 93 As one critic of futurology, Martin Shubi, has put it, ‘vacuous computing’ is a case of GIGO—‘garbage in, garbage out’. 1982 Byte Feb. 138/1 GIGO (garbage in, garbage out): the usual answer to the question ‘Why doesn't my program work?’ 1989 Daily Tel. 14 June 17/6 Mr Lawson has—in the old metaphor—reaped what he has sown. Or in a ruder, more technological metaphor, he is suffering from GIGO: Garbage In, Garbage Out. |