Sexism in the Ruby community: how does the Python community manage it?

[Robert Kern]

On 2013-10-18 04:14, Steven D'Aprano wrote:
> On Thu, 17 Oct 2013 10:16:24 -0700, Roy Smith wrote:
>
>> On Thursday, October 17, 2013 11:07:48 AM UTC-4, Chris Angelico wrote:
>>> Module names should be  descriptive, not fancy.
>>
>> Interesting comment, on a mailing list for a language named after a
>> snake, especially by a guy who claims to prefer an language named after
>> a fish :-)
>
> It's not named after a snake, but after a British comedy group, "Monty
> Python". And I daresay that Pike is named after a long stick with a spike
> and axe on the end. Just 'cos that would be cooler than naming it after
> the fish.
>
> (I'm not sure whether the fish was named after the weapon, or the weapon
> after the fish. But I'm pretty sure one was named after the other.)

Common parent more like. "pike" or "pick" or any number of similar variants was 
a more general term applied to things with a pointed tip. The fish name is a 
shortening of "pike-fish", so it's obviously not the source of the word. The 
weapon only really comes into fashion a couple of centuries after the fish's 
name is first recorded, so it's not the source either.

P.S. It's nice to have access to an electronic copy of the OED.

-- 
Robert Kern

"I have come to believe that the whole world is an enigma, a harmless enigma
  that is made terrible by our own mad attempt to interpret it as though it had
  an underlying truth."
   -- Umberto Eco