benevolent dictator for life

noun

Etymology

Originally applied to Dutch programmer Guido van Rossum, creator of the Python programming language, in an email from 1995. According to van Rossum, coined likely by either Ken Manheimer or Barry Warsaw.

Definitions

  1. The leader of an open-source software project, typically project founders, who retains…

    The leader of an open-source software project, typically project founders, who retains the final say in disputes or arguments within the community.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for benevolent dictator for life. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA