PET

See also: Appendix:Variations of "pet"

English

Etymology

The name of the computer (noun sense 4) derives from the 1970s pet rock fad; the acronym was invented afterwards.

Noun

PET (countable and uncountable, plural PETs)

(uncountable, organic chemistry) Initialism of polyethylene terephthalate.
Synonym: PETE

Hypernyms: polymer < plastic < material

Coordinate terms: Dacron, Terylene, PE, PEF, PETG
- 2022 May 9, Eleni Tsangouri et al., “Reservoir-Vascular Tubes Network for Self-Healing Concrete: Performance Analysis by Acoustic Emission, Digital Image Correlation and Ultrasound Velocity”, in Applied Sciences‎^[1], volume 12, number 10, →DOI, archived from the original on 18 April 2025:
  An effort was made to fit the flexible tube at least 3 mm deep onto the vasculature; (2) for the remaining systems, 3D-printed polyethylene terephthalate (PET) reservoir blocks were manufactured by PrintPlace using FDM technology. The additively manufactured PET reservoir blocks were previously applied and proven to effectively circulate the agent through the healing network [6].
(countable and uncountable, medicine) Acronym of positron emission tomography.
Hypernyms: tomography < imaging
- 2024 January 19, Elizabeth Payne, “Heart Institute a second family to new CEO […]”, in Ottawa Citizen‎^[2], Ottawa, Ont.: Postmedia, published 20 January 2024, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 21 January 2024, page A4, column 2:
  He [Rob Beanlands] is a founding director of the National Cardiac PET Centre, the first facility in Canada dedicated to the use of PET (positron-emission tomography) as a non-invasive cardiac diagnostic tool. PET technology can help determine whether areas of the heart muscle are receiving enough blood, if there is heart damage or scar tissue in the heart, or if there is a buildup of abnormal substances in the heart muscle.
(countable, genetics) Acronym of paired-end tag.
Synonym: ditag

Hypernyms: tag; sequence
(countable, historical, computing, backronym) Acronym of personal electronic transactor, a line of personal computers produced by Commodore International.
- 2014, Nick Montfort et al., 10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10, MIT Press, →ISBN, page 225:
  Why is the order of graphical characters in the PETSCII table so seemingly haphazard? The answer is that arrangement was dictated by the PET keyboard design, a hardware-driven decision.
(medicine) Initialism of perineal ectopic testis (a rare congenital anomaly of the testis).

Derived terms

(computer): PETSCII
fPET

Proper noun

PET

(Canadian politics) Initialism of Pierre Elliott Trudeau.
- 2016 November 20, “New books put Trudeaumania in fresh perspective”, in Toronto Star‎^[3], archived from the original on 7 August 2017:
  But Wright takes a rather contrarian position about the impact of emotionally charged Trudeaumania on PET’s astonishing political rise in 1968.