The history of the word harf began with the The Harf Project which was an attempt to get the word "harf" into common usage. The good people at the Harf Project introduced the word to Ackanomic where an office of Harfmeister was created and the word harf itself was generally adopted with a vengeance. It's use became ubiquitous in Ackanomic, and when the initial ruleset of Axiom was designed, it was designed by an Ackan. When the game began several Ackans were playing. The first definition below is just such a useful idea to be able to say with four letters, that "Harf" kinda got imported. Several other meanings just came along for the ride.
While the actual and total meaning of harf is not to be simply explained here, in Axiom, there are generally three ways that the word harf is used, though sometimes it may be used in its original Harf Project sense where meaning is derived almost entirely from context:
1. It is used as a verb which means something between "To represent some part of the game state on a webpage and thereby grant it an informal power over our perception of what actaully is the gamestate." and, "To take the gamestate to be X." An expample use would be "I'm not sure if the proposal repealed the rule, but I'll harf it that way till a Call For Judgement clarifies the issue."
2. Harf is used as a noun which means approximately "Something which has little intrinsic value and attempts to be silly/cool and is actaully just boring." For example, someone might say "I refuse to vote for harf like that."
3. Harf is used as an adjective in the form Harfy and means about "Pertaining to a thing which has little intrinsic value but is nevertheless silly/cool."
Last Updated: 3/21/2000 11:00pm PST
Author: Jennifer Mueller
If you're wonder whether the game is still going, message me at mueller4@sonic.net