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mercurial

Mercurial SCM - What does 'hg' stand for?


Git uses git status, Mercurial uses hg status.

What does the hg stand for? I have thoroughly searched for it, to no avail.


Solution

  • Hg is the chemical symbol for Mercury, element # 80 in the periodic table:

    enter image description here

    The symbol comes from Hydragyrum, the name for the substance using Greek roots, meaning (roughly) "silver water" (another name for Mercury was quicksilver).