[theandrewbailey]

I never heard anyone call a symbol or key 'splat' until taking database courses in college (15 years ago). Instead of saying 'asterisk' or 'star' all the time, they would read a SQL query like 'select splat from table...'

I'm pretty sure that it was another class at the same time where I picked up 'bang' for 'exclamation point'. Looking back, I'm surprised that both had eluded me for so long.

[jmt_]

I've never heard it used like that but actually makes a lot of sense if thinking of an asterisk as the glob wildcard. Plus it sounds much better when spoken aloud in the context compared to asterisk or star