flavour
(US: flavor) 1. Variety, type, kind. "DDT commands
come in two flavors." "These lights come in two flavors, big
red ones and small green ones." See {vanilla}.
2. The attribute that causes something to be {flavourful}.
Usually used in the phrase "yields additional flavour". "This
convention yields additional flavor by allowing one to print
text either right-side-up or upside-down." See {vanilla}.
This usage was certainly reinforced by the terminology of
quantum chromodynamics, in which quarks (the constituents of,
e.g. protons) come in six flavors (up, down, strange, charm,
top, bottom) and three colours (red, blue, green), however,
hackish use of "flavor" at {MIT} predated QCD.
3. The term for "{class}" (in the {object-oriented} sense) in
the {LISP Machine} {Flavors} system. Though the Flavors
design has been superseded (notably by the {Common LISP}
{CLOS} facility), the term "flavor" is still used as a general
synonym for "class" by some {Lisp} hackers.
(1994-11-01)