Re: postgresql -- what's in a name?

on Sun, Feb 10, 2002, a busy guru snipped:
> What the hell is postgre?   If you're looking for the history of
> PostgreSQL you can find a link to the "history" on the website's
> announcements page (and mirrors).

i'm not.

    <note target="guru">
    if you don't think it's worth your time to answer, please go
    with your instincts.
    </note>

i'm looking for the history of the NAME, not the history of the
project.

the history page says nothing about the etymology -- except it
mentions intellectual predecessors, by name, in passing. so i
INFER (it's just a guess, of course, since it's not covered on
the history page) that if ingres came first and postgresql was
based on it, the logical successor might be aptly named
post-ingres, or postgres for short.

or perhaps the name postgres or postgre or postgresql means
something in its own right? aztec for 'think for yourself' maybe?
or mandarin for 'open source rocks'? sanskrit for 'awesome
cruncher' perhaps?

or, if postgres was named post-ingres, then what or who was the
mysterious ingres? was that somebody's name before it applied to
the relational technologies/ingres corporation? and why'd we
drop the "in" prefix in that case?

i know WHERE THE #NAMES# CAME FROM for apple, linux, even q-dos
and cp/m.  i'd like to know about the evolution of the name
"postgres".

--

and as for the pronunciation, let's say we'd like to have a
text-indexable and -searchable instance (commonly difficult to
do with an .mpg or .aiff or even -- heavens -- .wav file):

    "we pronounce postgresql as 'plith'. there you go."

perhaps

    <suggestion type="comedy">
    "among the accepted pronunciations of 'postgresql' are:
        post-GRESS-kwel
        PISS-kule
        PIG-skool
        OR-ah-kel cun-TEN-der
        MAIR-zee-doats
    though not necessarily in that order.  and with that,
    we consider the matter closed.  have a nice day."
    </suggestion>

how about it? hmm? (again, if you don't think it's worth your
time to answer, go with your first impulse.)

--
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:
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Also see http://newbieDoc.sourceForge.net/ ...