On 09/11/2017 08:35 PM, Fred Cisin via cctalk wrote: > Etaoin Shrdlu was most importantly one of Walt Kelly's characters in Pogo. > > ETAOIN SHRDLU ETA name > On Mon, 11 Sep 2017, Chris Elmquist via cctalk wrote: >> I was told that the name came from this string which could be found in >> printed works and that people had always seen it but just read past it >> because it didn't fit or make sense. > > That is canonically "loren ipsum", the filler "greeking" text used to > set up layout. > Although admittedly ETAOIN SHRDLU was also sometimes used for greeking.
It also inadvertently crept into printed copy. If the Linotype operator made an error in a line, it was common to just fill the line out with ETAOIN SHRDLU so that the copy editor would know to discard the line. --Chuck
