footprint

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First recorded in the 16th century, footprint has for several centuries been largely confined to its literal meaning, with only occasional figurative uses (as in Longfellow's

'We can make our lives sublime, and, departing, leave behind us Footprints on the sands of time'—A Psalm of Life, 1838).

Then in the 1980s it developed a special meaning in information technology, 'the area of a surface occupied by a computer or other piece of hardware', and at about the same time another still more abstract meaning arose which is even more redolent of the times we live in: 'an environmental consequence of human activity in terms of pollution, damage to ecosystems, and depletion of natural resources' (Old English (up to 1150)D). A carbon footprint is the harmful effect caused by the activities of an individual or organization in terms of the emission of carbon dioxide on the environment. The word conjures up a vivid image of the presence and consequences of human beings on the planet.

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The amount of geographic space covered by an object. A computer footprint is the desk or floor surface it occupies. A satellite's footprint is the earth area covered by its downlink. See form factor and memory footprint.

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1. The floor or desk area taken up by a piece of hardware.

2. [IBM] The audit trail (if any) left by a crashed program (often in plural, footprints). See also toeprint.

3. RAM footprint: The minimum amount of RAM which an OS or other program takes; this figure gives one an idea of how much will be left for other applications. How actively this RAM is used is another matter entirely. Recent tendencies to featuritis and software bloat can expand the RAM footprint of an OS to the point of making it nearly unusable in practice. [This problem is, thankfully, limited to operating systems so stupid that they don't do virtual memory -- ESR]

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n. 1. the area in which a broadcast signal from a particular source can be received.

2. the area beneath an aircraft or a land vehicle that is affected by its noise or weight.

See the Introduction, Abbreviations and Pronunciation for further details.

The area on a plane directly beneath a structure (or piece of equipment), that has the same perimeter as the structure (or piece of equipment).

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(DOD) 1. The area on the surface of the earth within a satellite's transmitter or sensor field of view. 2. The amount of personnel, spares, resources, and capabilities physically present and occupying space at a deployed location.

For a list of words related to footprint, see:

• Space Exploration and Rocketry - footprint: area taken up by spacecraft on ground
• General Technology - footprint: area of desk or floor space occupied by piece of hardware

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See words rhyming with "footmark."

  See crossword solutions for the clue Footprint.

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

Dansk (Danish)
n. - fodspor

Nederlands (Dutch)
voetafdruk, be-/ gedekte/ oppervlakte

Français (French)
n. - empreinte de pas, trace de pas, espace de bureau

Deutsch (German)
n. - Fußabdruck

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - πατημασιά, (α)χνάρι, απαραίτητος χώρος για μηχάνημα

Italiano (Italian)
orma, impronta

Português (Portuguese)
n. - pegada (f)

Русский (Russian)
след, отпечаток

Español (Spanish)
n. - huella, pisada, rastro

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - fotspår, landningsområde för rymdfarkost, bordsutrymme (data)

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
脚印, 足迹

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 腳印, 足跡

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 발자국

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 足跡

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) أثر القدم, مجال تستحوذه آله ما‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮סימן עקב, עקב, טביעת נעל, תחום קליטת שידורים, השטח על הדיסק התפוס ע"י תוכנת המעבד הזעיר‬

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