feep

   1.  n. The soft electronic `bell' sound of a display terminal (except
   for  a  VT-52);  a  beep  (in  fact, the microcomputer world seems to
   prefer {beep}).

   2.  vi.  To  cause  the  display  to  make a feep sound. ASR-33s (the
   original  TTYs)  do  not  feep; they have mechanical bells that ring.
   Alternate  forms:  {beep},  `bleep',  or just about anything suitably
   onomatopoeic.  (Jeff MacNelly, in his comic strip Shoe, uses the word
   `eep'  for sounds made by computer terminals and video games; this is
   perhaps  the  closest  written approximation yet.) The term `breedle'
   was  sometimes  heard  at  SAIL,  where the terminal bleepers are not
   particularly  soft  (they sound more like the musical equivalent of a
   raspberry  or  Bronx  cheer;  for  a close approximation, imagine the
   sound  of  a Star Trek communicator's beep lasting for five seconds).
   The `feeper' on a VT-52 has been compared to the sound of a '52 Chevy
   stripping its gears. See also {ding}.

[glossary]
[Reference(s) to this entry by made by: {beep}{breedle}{ding}{feeper}{gweep}{SPACEWAR}]