moof

Blend of moo (“lowing sound of a cow”) +‎ woof (“barking sound of a dog”). Coined by American computer programmer Mark Harlan in 1987 or 1988 in internal memoranda within Apple Computer.^[1] First publicly attested in 1989.^[2] Trademarked by Apple from 1992 to 1999 (U.S. Reg. No. 1,695,826).

• IPA^(key): /muf/, /muːf/^[3]

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -uːf

moof

1. (onomatopoeia, usually computing, humorous) Used to indicate the lowing or barking sound of a dogcow or similar chimeric creature.
   • 1989 April, Mark Harlan, “The Dogcow”, in Machintosh Technical Notes‎^[4], number 31, Cupertino, California: Apple Computer, archived from the original on 2 February 2004:

     Upon closer examination, I discovered that dogcows actually "speak." In a very excited condition, like being near an open can of Mountain Dew, dogcows will say "Boo Woo! Moof!" But it is much more common to hear them just say, "Moof!"

   • 1995, Michael A. Hemmingson, Nice Little Stories Jam-Packed with Depraved Sex & Violence, Denver: CyberPsychos AOD, →ISBN, page 23:

     “And won’t you just cry out and beg for mercy? You know, Alisha dear,” warm breath on him, “I used to think he was just a dog, and then I thought he was a cow, but I think—I know—he’s just a cross between both, a cow and a dog. Cows go moo, dogs go woof, so what does a dogcow go? Moof moof moof. Go moof, Chuck, go moof.”

   • 1998 September 3, David Morgenstein, “BMUG Report: The Cupertino Shuffle”, in MicroTimes, volume 7, number 9, Oakland, California: BAM Publications, page 178:

     Everyone knew where the hackers were sitting when they started yelling “Moof! moof!” at the screen—“moof” is the sound the LaserWriter Options dogcow makes.

   • 1998 October 29, Bob LeVitus, “The tail of the dogcow”, in Mac OS 8.5 For Dummies‎^[5], Hoboken, New Jersey: Wiley, →ISBN, page 162:

     His name, they say, is Clarus. His bark, they say, is Moof.

   • 2001 June 29, David Pogue, Joseph Schorr, “The inevitable Dogcow sidebar”, in Macworld? Mac? Secrets?‎^[6], Hoboken, New Jersey: Wiley, →ISBN, page 1040:

     You can predict, we bet, the sound she makes: Moof! (Yes, the Dogcow is a she—as is every cow. Otherwise, she would be a dogbull.

   • 2007 March 1, Holly Haggarty, Summer Dragons, Toronto: Dundurn Press, →ISBN, page 99:

     “But it has ten legs and goes ‘moof-moof’,” Eddie joked.

   • 2009 May 11, Heather McHugh, “Hackers Can Sidejack Cookies”, in The New Yorker‎^[7], volume 85, number 13, New York City, retrieved 12 April 2025:

     Before you reconfigure, mount
     a scratch monkey. A dogcow
     makes a moof. An aliasing bug
     can smash the stack.

moof (plural moofs)

1. (slang) A bong (vessel for smoking marijuana).
   • 2014, Frank B. Thompson, III, WTF!: This is a Liberal Utopia!:

     What was thought […] to be smoke coming from a badly tuned engine was in reality a pot burning moof!

• FOMO, FoMO, foom, mofo