I feel like no, trying it out (though on my Mac using zsh and not a 25 year old Linux box) the slash being first makes it reference the root directory.

yes, the correct syntax would be: ./ not /.

It could be but the version I remembered was trying to tell someone the website over the phone.

Perhaps someone on HN has a more reliable source than my brain?

How do you create the name for a website by trying to tell someone how to get to it over the phone? Doesn't the DNS entry have to exist first?

"Hey check out this website I discovered - it's called Slashdot" "It's called what!?" "Slashdot" "How do you spell that?" "http://slashdot.org" "Hang on, what? How many slashes and dots?"

So the conversation of what might happen occurred before the site was created?

See the FAQ for an official answer - https://slashdot.org/faq

I probably got the telephone part mixed up but was right about being confusing to read aloud.

Can’t get a better source that /. itself!

I have a 6 digit /. id and somehow never knew this. Thanks!

Dot is the current directory.

With ~, ~/. could mean your home directory if your shell recognises ~ as $HOME.

Don’t think /. aka slashdot has any intrinsic meaning in Linux.