feature key

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	This is the JargonFile (V4.00) entry for feature key - Next: feature shock, Prev: feature creature
:feature key: /n./ The Macintosh key with the cloverleaf graphic on its keytop; sometimes referred to as flower, pretzel, clover, propeller, beanie (an apparent reference to the major feature of a propeller beanie), splat, or the command key. The Macs equivalent of an alt key. The proliferation of terms for this creature may illustrate one subtle peril of iconic interfaces. Many people have been mystified by the cloverleaf-like symbol that appears on the feature key. Its oldest name is cross of St. Hannes, but it occurs in pre-Christian Viking art as a decorative motif. Throughout Scandinavia today the road agencies use it to mark sites of historical interest. Apple picked up the symbol from an early Mac developer who happened to be Swedish. Apple documentation gives the translation "interesting feature"! There is some dispute as to the proper (Swedish) name of this symbol. It technically stands for the word sev"ardhet (interesting feature); many of these are old churches. Some Swedes report as an idiom for it the word kyrka, cognate to English church and Scots-dialect kirk but pronounced /shirk*/ in modern Swedish. Others say this is nonsense. Another idiom reported for the sign is runsten /roonstn/, derived from the fact that many of the interesting features are Viking rune-stones.
* (text is auto-included via JargonExtension by mutante using jargon with VERSION 4.0.0, 24 JUL 1996 - JargonFile by Eric S. Raymond is in the public domain)