wizard n.
1. Transitively, a person who knows how a complex piece of software or hardware works (that is, who [grok]s it); esp. someone who can find and fix bugs quickly in an emergency. Someone is a [hacker] if he or she has general hacking ability, but is a wizard with respect to something only if he or she has specific detailed knowledge of that thing. A good hacker could become a wizard for something given the time to study it. 2. The term `wizard' is also used intransitively of someone who has extremely high-level hacking or problem-solving ability. 3. A person who is permitted to do things forbidden to ordinary people; one who has [wheel] privileges on a system. 4. A Unix expert, esp. a Unix systems programmer. This usage is well enough established that `Unix Wizard' is a recognized job title at some corporations and to most headhunters. See [guru], [lord high fixer]. See also [deep magic], [heavy wizardry], [incantation], [magic], [mutter], [rain dance], [voodoo programming], [wave a dead chicken].
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