wallpaper

wallpaper n.  1. A file containing a listing (e.g., assembly
   listing) or a transcript, esp. a file containing a transcript of
   all or part of a login session.  (The idea was that the paper for
   such listings was essentially good only for wallpaper, as evidenced
   at Stanford, where it was used to cover windows.)  Now rare, esp.
   since other systems have developed other terms for it (e.g., PHOTO
   on TWENEX).  However, the UNIX world doesn't have an equivalent
   term, so perhaps {wallpaper} will take hold there.  The term
   probably originated on ITS, where the commands to begin and end
   transcript files were `WALBEG' and `WALEND', with
   default file `WALL PAPER' (the space was a path delimiter).
   2. The background pattern used on graphical workstations (this is
   techspeak under the `Windows' graphical user interface to
   MS-DOS).  3. `wallpaper file' n. The file that contains the
   wallpaper information before it is actually printed on paper.
   (Even if you don't intend ever to produce a real paper copy of the
   file, it is still called a wallpaper file.)