/drek'net/ [Yiddish/German "dreck", meaning filth] Deliberate

distortion of DECNET, a networking protocol used in the VMS

community. So called because DEC helped write the Ethernet

specification and then (either stupidly or as a malignant

customer-control tactic) violated that spec in the design of

DRECNET in a way that made it incompatible. See also

connector conspiracy.