The -P convention

The '-P' convention

Turning a word into a question by appending the syllable 'P'; from the LISP convention of appending the letter 'P' to denote a predicate (a boolean-valued function). The question should expect a yes/no answer, though it needn't. (See T and NIL.)

    At dinnertime:

          Q: ''Foodp?''

          A: ''Yeah, I'm pretty hungry.'' or ''T!''


    At any time:

          Q: ''State-of-the-world-P?''

          A: (Straight) ''I'm about to go home.''

          A: (Humorous) ''Yes, the world has a state.''


    On the phone to Florida:

          Q: ''State-p Florida?''

          A: ''Been reading JARGON.TXT again, eh?''

[One of the best of these is a Gosperism. Once, when we were at a Chinese restaurant, Bill Gosper wanted to know whether someone would like to share with him a two-person-sized bowl of soup. His inquiry was: "Split-p soup?" -- GLS]

--The Jargon File version 4.3.1, ed. ESR, autonoded by rescdsk.