Dunder (Double UNDERscore) Alias
[http://www.alumni.caltech.edu/~mjackson Mark Jackson] was the first to suggest dunder as a speech shorthand for double underscores (__) in a reply to [http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-list/2002-September/124640.html a query from Pat Notz]. [http://www.nedbatchelder.com/ Ned Batchelder] later [http://www.nedbatchelder.com/blog/200605.html#e20060522T162427 stressed the need for a way of pronouncing] __:
An awkward thing about programming in Python: there are lots of double underscores. [snip] My problem with the double underscore is that it's hard to say. How do you pronounce __init__? "underscore underscore init underscore underscore"? "under under init under under"? Just plain "init" seems to leave out something important. I have a solution: double underscore should be pronounced "dunder". So __init__ is "dunder init dunder", or just "dunder init".
[http://theonda.org/ Antonio Rodriguez] reported [http://www.nedbatchelder.com/reactor/comment.php?entryid=e20060522T162427&title=Dunder&url=http%3A//www.nedbatchelder.com/blog/200605.html immediate adoption] of the alias.