cat
= C =
cathedral
catatonic adj.
Describes a condition of suspended animation
in which something is so wedged or hung that it makes no
response. If you are typing on a terminal and suddenly the
computer doesn't even echo the letters back to the screen as you
type, let alone do what you're asking it to do, then the computer
is suffering from catatonia (possibly because it has crashed).
"There I was in the middle of a winning game of nethack and
it went catatonic on me! Aaargh!" Compare buzz.
--The Jargon File version 4.3.1, ed. ESR, autonoded by rescdsk.