Monday, June 21, 2004

Peering and dis-peering

disparage (di-SPAR-ij) verb tr.

1. To speak slightingly; to belittle.

2. To lower in rank or estimation.

[From Middle English, from Old French desparage (to match unequally), from dis- + parage (equality), from per (peer), from Latin par (equal).]

But see: [OF. desparagier, F. d['e]parager, to marry unequally; pref. des- (L. dis-) + F. parage extraction, lineage, from L. par equal, peer. See Peer.] 1. To match unequally; to degrade or dishonor by an unequal marriage. [Obs.]

peer

A unit of communications hardware or software that is on the same protocol layer of a network as another. A common way of viewing a communications link is as two protocol stacks, which are actually connected only at the very lowest (physical) layer, but can be regarded as being connected at each higher layer by virtue of the services provided by the lower layers. Peer-to-peer communication refers to these real or virtual connections between corresponding systems in each layer.

To give a simple example, when two people talk to each other, the lowest layer is the physical layer which concerns the sound pressure waves travelling from mouth to ear (so mouths and ears are peers).

Source: The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing, © 1993-2004 Denis Howe


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