PET

See also: pet, pêt, pět, and Pet.

English

Etymology

The name of the computer (sense 4) derives from the 1970s pet rock fad; the acronym was invented afterwards.

Noun

PET (countable and uncountable, plural PETs)

1. (uncountable, organic chemistry) Initialism of polyethylene terephthalate.

   Coordinate terms: Dacron, Terylene

2. (countable, medicine) Acronym of positron emission tomography.
3. (countable, genetics) Acronym of paired-end tag.
4. (countable, historical, computing, backronym) Acronym of personal electronic transactor, a line of personal computers produced by Commodore International.
   • 2014, Nick Montfort et al., 10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10, MIT Press, →ISBN, page 225:

     Why is the order of graphical characters in the PETSCII table so seemingly haphazard? The answer is that arrangement was dictated by the PET keyboard design, a hardware-driven decision.

Derived terms

• (computer): PETSCII

Translations

polyethylene terephthalate — see polyethylene terephthalate

positron emission tomography — see positron emission tomography

Anagrams

• EPT, PTE, Pte, TPE, Tep, ept

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French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pe.ø.te/

• Audio

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• Audio (Switzerland)

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Noun

PET m (plural PETs)

1. PET (“polyethylene terephthalate”); Abbreviation of polyéthylène téréphtalate.