They're just nonsense words commonly used when you need a "generic" name for something - a variable or a function, say. foo has a lot of info on the history of this, as has the Jargon File.

Cheers, Ben.

In reply to Re: Origin of 'foo', 'bar', et al? by benn
in thread Origin of 'foo', 'bar', et al? by yosefm

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