From The Jargon File (version 4.4.7, 29 Dec 2003):
awk
/awk/
1. n. [Unix techspeak] An interpreted language for massaging text data
developed by Alfred Aho, Peter Weinberger, and Brian Kernighan (the name
derives from their initials). It is characterized by C-like syntax, a
declaration-free approach to variable typing and declarations, associative
arrays, and field-oriented text processing. See also Perl.
2. n. Editing term for an expression awkward to manipulate through normal
regexp facilities (for example, one containing a newline).
3. vt. To process data using awk(1).
B