A
slang term, used in
London and other parts of
Britain, for a
damn fool. It reached the height of its popularity in
The Eighties. Although seldom heard in this day and age, 'div' is notable for being
an English word that ends with v, one of several
slang words that fall into this category. Sometimes used in the form
divvy, which can also mean a
share or
dividend, and appears in the phrase 'divvy up' meaning 'divide up'.
Also an HTML tag, often found sprinkled liberally and pointlessly in HTML email sent from Hotmail accounts:
This tag extends the alignment attributes of the <p> to groups of block like elements (paragraphs, tables and images). All the block like elements within a <div> container inherit their alignment attributes from the initial <div> tag unless, of course, the elements have their own alignment attributes.
- The HTML encyclopaedia (http://www.scit.wlv.ac.uk/encyc/)
In Persian mythology, a div is a malevolent spirit or demon, created and ruled over by Ahriman. The word derives from the Sanskrit root div, meaning 'to shine'; the same root gives us the devas of Indian mythology, and - if http://www.geocities.com/rastamage/BoS/Nigromancy/daimonsriddle.html is to be believed - the word devil (Chambers seems to contradict this, saying that its root diabolos originally meant 'to throw across').
Div is also an abbreviation for dividend, and in Scottish English it is a form of do (as a present indicative). Finally, it is the name of an irascible, alcoholic DivX player in the webcomic Penny Arcade.