Int

Part of speech: noun, adjective

Definitions

1. A whole-number data type used in computer programming ; a shortened form of intermission, the break between parts of a show ; a screenplay abbreviation marking a scene set indoors
2. A programming type that stores whole numbers without fractions ; an informal shortening of intermission, the pause in a performance ; a script note indicating that a scene takes place inside a building
3. The primitive type holding integer values in code ; a clipped term for the interval during a play or film ; an abbreviation written before a scene heading to show it is set indoors

Etymology: Intentional feeding of animals in a park or zoo, or of wild birds and fish, was once a common subject of ordinary conversation, and the word that grew up around it shows how a clipped form can take on a life of its own. The term "int" appears to have been formed backwards from "inting," a shortened version of "intentional feeding" or "intentionally feeding." Speakers trimmed the longer phrase into a verb, and then the verb's root was split off to produce a new standalone word. This is a back-formation, a pattern in which a shorter base word is extracted from a longer form that only seemed to contain a suffix. Because the chain is apparent rather than fully documented, the exact moment and circumstances of its coinage are not clear, so the word's history rests on how neatly it fits the pattern of its parent form.