$DEITY

• $deity

From the syntax of environment variables in Unix shells, and the practice of putting paths to user's software of choice in generically named variables like EDITOR or PAGER.

• same as deity, or as dollar sign deity^[1] (see the respective entries)

$DEITY (plural $DEITIES)

1. (Internet slang, humorous) A generic deity; the listener's or reader's god of choice.
   • 2000, Justin Warren, “Re: newbie learns an arcane command”, in alt.sysadmin.recovery‎^[2] (Usenet):

     No real init that actually works the way it's supposed to. No snoop. No truss/strace. The whole stupid application install method with it's^[sic] /opt /etc/opt/, /var/opt, /tmp/var/etc/opt $DEITY dammit!

   • 2000, 2:1, “Re: Malloy digest”, in comp.os.ms-windows.nt.advocacy‎^[3] (Usenet):

     For $DEITY's sake, stop `digesting' each other and advocate something useful!

   • 2015 March 30, Daniel James, “Re: [anti-topic] rant, idiots should probably avoid”, in comp.mobile.android‎^[4] (Usenet):

     Thank $DEITIES for Open Source!

Often substitutes for god/God in set phrases like thank God or for God's sake.

• Jargon File, Chapter 5. Hacker Writing Style