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kristianp

3 hours ago

This article has some research into possible origins of the name: https://nickm.com/post/2010/01/a-note-on-the-word-zork/comme...

empressplay

7 minutes ago

https://www.gricer.com/tmrc/dictionary1959.html

---The words defined in this dictionary are the property of the Tech

   Model Railroad Club of M. I. T. and all rights to use and define

   these words are strictly reserved.---

ZORCH: to attack with an inverse heat sink.

Another of David Sawyer's sound effects, which I reinterpreted as a colorful variant of "scorch."

etep

3 hours ago

The edit distance form work to zork is 1.

For this, and because of tab completions (perhaps tab completions post-date zork, but nonetheless) I find the work:zork story compelling. I have used the first letter is replaced by "z" trick many times (z-tab, done!), and that pre-dated any contemplation of the zork mystery.

big85

2 hours ago

Ah, but there are plenty of folk etymologies which, although they make a lot of logical sense, aren't true.

ashenke

2 hours ago

Also, W and Z are switched in the AZERTY keyboard. So maybe someone mistyped work on the wrong layout??

jasonwatkinspdx

10 minutes ago

Certainly sounds plausible. Most of the time the first thing I do after I log in to a terminal is "cd work." And if I blundered that on a french keyboard at some point it might pop into my head as a funny thing to name a project.