"master" is a "blocklisted" word now. I also think it's silly to change the word on places which doesn't have "slave"s (e.g. github master branch > main branch switch), but well..

I read a gitlab blog[0] where they mention that "master" comes from bitkeeper where there was a master repository and slave repositories.

It does make one wonder, if there was more diversity in CS when these things were being made whether "master-slave" analogies would have made it in or whether other analogies like "parent-child", "major-minor", "leader-follower" or similar would have made it in.

[0] https://about.gitlab.com/blog/2021/03/10/new-git-default-bra...

"Out of memory: Sacrificing child" does sound vaguely better than "Out of memory: Sacrificing slave"

It's actually a coincidence: see https://mail.gnome.org/archives/desktop-devel-list/2020-June...

In the end it doesn't really matter once the word has gotten tainted. It's still ugly that incorrect deductions spread so quickly and corrections don't.

The master-slave terminology is used outside of CS as well. For example in EE we have master-slave edge-triggered D or JK flip-flops. I don’t feel strongly either way about such word use but I am fine with renaming them too. The fact that such change is so triggering to some people is strange!

Got me curious about whitelist and the opposite.

that's more of a database (and other) term.