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Bad Thing n.
[very common; from the 1930 Sellar & Yeatman parody "1066 And All That">[ Something that can't possibly result in improvement of the subject. This term is always capitalized, as in "Replacing all of the 9600-baud modems with bicycle couriers would be a Bad Thing". Oppose [Good Thing]. British correspondents confirm that [Bad Thing] and [Good Thing] (and prob. therefore [Right Thing] and [Wrong Thing]) come from the book referenced in the etymology, which discusses rulers who were Good Kings but Bad Things. This has apparently created a mainstream idiom on the British side of the pond. It is very common among American hackers, but not in mainstream usage here. Compare [Bad and Wrong].
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