[very common; always pronounced as if capitalized. Orig. fr. the 1930
Sellar & Yeatman parody of British history 1066 And All That, but
well-established among hackers in the U.S. as well.] Something that
can't possibly result in improvement of the subject. This term is
always capitalized, as in "Replacing all of the DSL links with
bicycle couriers would be a Bad Thing". Oppose {Good Thing}. British
correspondents confirm that {Bad Thing} and {Good Thing} (and prob.
therefore {Right Thing} and {Wrong Thing}) come from the book
referenced in the etymology, which discusses rulers who were Good
Kings but Bad Things. This has apparently created a mainstream idiom
on the British side of the pond. It is very common among American
hackers, but not in mainstream usage in the U.S. Compare {Bad and
Wrong}.
[glossary]
[Reference(s) to this entry by made by: {Bad and Wrong}{Bad Thing}{Commonwealth Hackish}{forked}{Good Thing}{indent style}{non-optimal solution}{toy language}{trap door}{write-only code}]