hardware /tit'ee/ (
ITS pronunciation, but some
Unix people say it this way as well; this pronunciation is not
considered to have sexual undertones), /T T Y/
2. (Especially
Unix) Any terminal at all; sometimes used to
refer to the particular terminal controlling a given job (it
is also the name of a Unix command which outputs the name of
the current controlling terminal).
connected to it is a terminal; so called because under Unix
such devices have names of the form tty*. Ambiguity between
senses 2 and 3 is common but seldom bothersome.
(1995-11-23)