hacker

n. Informal

1. One who is proficient at using or programming a computer; a computer buff.
2. One who uses programming skills to gain illegal access to a computer network or file.
3. One who enthusiastically pursues a game or sport: a weekend tennis hacker.

[Perhaps from hacker, amateurish or inept golfer or tennis player (possibly from HACK¹), or perhaps from hack, practical joke, clever scheme (from dialectal hack, to embarrass, confuse, play a trick on).]

(HACK-uhr)

noun
1. A person who enjoys exploring the details of programmable systems and how to stretch their capabilities, as opposed to most users, who prefer to learn only the minimum necessary.
2. One who programs enthusiastically (even obsessively) or who enjoys programming rather than just theorizing about programming.
3. A person capable of appreciating hack value.
4. A person who is good at programming quickly.
5. An expert at a particular program, or one who frequently does work using it or on it; as in `a Unix hacker'. (Definitions 1 through 5 are correlated, and people who fit them congregate.)
6. An expert or enthusiast of any kind. One might be an astronomy hacker, for example.
7. One who enjoys the intellectual challenge of creatively overcoming or circumventing limitations.
8. [deprecated] A malicious meddler who tries to discover sensitive information by poking around. Hence `password hacker', `network hacker'. The correct term for this sense is cracker.

Etymology
Originally, someone who makes furniture with an axe.

Usage
"When Emmanuel Goldstein, who runs a hacker magazine called 2600, posted Johanssen's software on a website, eight media companies (including Time Warner, parent company of TIME) sued Goldstein ...." — Lev Grossman, Digital Divisiveness, Time, Aug 28, 2000.

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1. n. a taxi driver.  You wonder how some of these hackers keep their licenses.
2. n. a sloppy or inefficient computer programmer.  This program was written by a real hacker. It's a mess, but it works.
3. n. a generally unsuccessful person.  Poor Pete is just a hacker. He'll never go any place.
4. n. someone who breaks into a computer electronically.  Some hacker broke into our computer!

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diana hacker