SI prefix meaning 10 to the negative 9th power (10-9 or 10^-9). Abbreviation is n.

Nano is "Nano's ANOther editor" - a free pico-clone.

Just as pico it should be invoked with the -w argument to be usable for serious work (see pico -w).

NANA = N = nanoacre

nano /nan'oh/ n.

[CMU: from `nanosecond'] A brief period of time. "Be with you in a nano" means you really will be free shortly, i.e., implies what mainstream people mean by "in a jiffy" (whereas the hackish use of `jiffy' is quite different -- see jiffy).

nano- pref.

[SI: the next quantifier below micro-; meaning * 10^(-9)] Smaller than micro-, and used in the same rather loose and connotative way. Thus, one has nanotechnology (coined by hacker K. Eric Drexler) by analogy with `microtechnology'; and a few machine architectures have a `nanocode' level below `microcode'. Tom Duff at Bell Labs has also pointed out that "Pi seconds is a nanocentury". See also quantifiers, pico-, nanoacre, nanobot, nanocomputer, nanofortnight.

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

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