Lisp

[lisp] /lɪsp/

noun
1.
a speech defect consisting in pronouncing s and z like or nearly like the th- sounds of thin and this, respectively.
2.
Phonetics. any unconventional articulation of the sibilants, as the pronunciation of s and z with the tongue between the teeth (lingual protrusion lisp) close to or touching the upper front teeth (dental lisp) or raised so that the breath is emitted laterally (lateral lisp)
3.
the act, habit, or sound of lisping.
verb (used with or without object)
4.
to pronounce or speak with a lisp.
5.
to speak imperfectly, especially in a childish manner.
[lisp] /lɪsp/
noun, Computers.
1.
a high-level programming language that processes data in the form of lists: widely used in artificial intelligence applications.
/lɪsp/
noun
1.
the articulation of s and z like or nearly like the th sounds in English thin and then respectively
2.
the habit or speech defect of pronouncing s and z in this manner
3.
the sound of a lisp in pronunciation
verb
4.
to use a lisp in the pronunciation of (speech)
5.
to speak or pronounce imperfectly or haltingly
/lɪsp/
noun
1.
a high-level computer-programming language suitable for work in artificial intelligence
v.

late Old English awlyspian “to lisp,” from wlisp (adj.) “lisping,” probably of imitative origin (cf. Middle Dutch, Old High German lispen, Danish læspe, Swedish läspa). Related: Lisped; lisping.
n.

1620s, from lisp (v.).

lisp (lĭsp)
n.
A speech defect or mannerism characterized by mispronunciation of the sounds (s) and (z) as (th) and (th). v. lisped, lisp·ing, lisps
To speak with a lisp.
language
LISt Processing language.
(Or mythically “Lots of Irritating Superfluous Parentheses”). Artificial Intelligence’s mother tongue, a symbolic, functional, recursive language based on the ideas of lambda-calculus, variable-length lists and trees as fundamental data types and the interpretation of code as data and vice-versa.
Data objects in Lisp are lists and atoms. Lists may contain lists and atoms. Atoms are either numbers or symbols. Programs in Lisp are themselves lists of symbols which can be treated as data. Most implementations of Lisp allow functions with side-effects but there is a core of Lisp which is purely functional.
All Lisp functions and programs are expressions that return values; this, together with the high memory use of Lisp, gave rise to Alan Perlis’s famous quip (itself a take on an Oscar Wilde quote) that “Lisp programmers know the value of everything and the cost of nothing”.
The original version was LISP 1, invented by John McCarthy [email protected] at MIT in the late 1950s. Lisp is actually older than any other high level language still in use except Fortran. Accordingly, it has undergone considerable change over the years. Modern variants are quite different in detail. The dominant HLL among hackers until the early 1980s, Lisp now shares the throne with C. See languages of choice.
One significant application for Lisp has been as a proof by example that most newer languages, such as COBOL and Ada, are full of unnecessary crocks. When the Right Thing has already been done once, there is no justification for bogosity in newer languages.
See also Association of Lisp Users, Common Lisp, Franz Lisp, MacLisp, Portable Standard Lisp, Interlisp, Scheme, ELisp, Kamin’s interpreters.
[Jargon File]
(1995-04-16)
List Processing computer language