Widget
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A Widget is often a placeholder name for an object or, more specifically, a mechanical or other manufactured device.
- Widget engine, such as Dashboard widgets for Apple's Mac OS X 10.4, Windows Sidebar, or Yahoo! Widgets
- Widget (beer), the nitrogen widget in cans and bottles of beer
- Widget (computing), a component of a graphical user interface that the user interacts with
- Web widget, a third party item that can be embedded in a web page
- Widget (comics), a character in Marvel Comics
- Widget (TV series), a 1990's animated television series
- Widget (tool), a small scraping tool consisting of a blade and a handle, used to remove paint from glass
[edit] Etymology
Some say that the word "widget" combines "window" and "gadget". This is unlikely since it occurs in the 1924 comedic play, 'Beggar on Horseback' (1924), written by George S. Kaufman and Marc Connelly. The hero, a struggling composer, must choose creating music that stimulates his soul but earns no money or earning a soul-deadening living in a "widget" factory. "Widget" is never explained; but clearly, it's any mechanical product without artistic or spiritual value.
Somewhat more likely is that the word is a compression of "gadget," in its pejorative connotation of "cheap, mass-produced, mechanical trifle," with "Whatchamacallit," drawing attention to the universality, non-specificity, and utter unimportance of its particular identity.
[edit] Economics
"Widget" is frequently used in texts and speech to indicate a hypothetical "any-product," (usually in Economics) but has declined in use in favor of specific, "real," more easily understood examples.
[edit] See also
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