quine

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a self-replicating program or statement that outputs its own source code

   The program is a quine, outputting its own source code.

2. 2
   noun

   a philosopher, particularly W. V. O. Quine, known for work in logic and philosophy of language

   Quine challenged the analytic-synthetic distinction.

Coined in computing in honor of the philosopher and logician Willard Van Orman Quine, whose work on self-reference inspired the term for a program that prints its own source code.

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