ident

Etymology 1

From a later form of ithand, itself an alteration (due to assimilation to suffix -and) of Middle English ithen, from Old Norse iðinn (“assiduous, diligent”), from iðja, iðna (“to do, perform”), from ið (“a restless motion”), equivalent to ithe + -and and/or ithe + -en. Cognate with Icelandic iðinn (“diligent”), Norwegian idig (“busy”), Danish id (“pursuit, calling, business”). More at ithand.

adj

  1. (Now chiefly dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) Diligent; persistent.

Etymology 2

Shortened form of identification.

noun

  1. Identification.
    Well, that's the priority. Get the ident. 2022, Liam McIlvanney, The Heretic, page 37
  2. (radio, television) A brief audio or audiovisual sequence serving to identify the broadcaster.
    In 1999 Chaudoir and fellow BBC designer Tim Platt were given the task of rebranding the existing BBC2 idents. 2002, Jane Austin, Graphic Originals
  3. (Internet) A protocol serving to identify the user of a particular TCP connection, used especially on IRC networks.
    […] the intruder installed an IRC bot and French ident daemon to reply to IRC servers with a name other than root. 2004, Eoghan Casey, Digital Evidence and Computer Crime
  4. Identifier.

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