1. <data, architecture> A computer architecture in which, within a given multi-byte numeric representation, the most significant byte has the lowest address (the word is stored "big-end-first"). Most processors, including the IBM 370 family, the PDP-10, the Motorola microprocessor families, and most of the various RISC designs current in mid-1993, are big-endian. See -endian. 2. <networking, standard> A backward {electronic mail address}. The world now follows the Internet hostname standard (see FQDN) and writes e-mail addresses starting with the name of the computer and ending up with the {country code} (e.g. fred@doc.acme.ac.uk). In the United Kingdom the Joint Networking Team decided to do it the other way round (e.g. me@uk.ac.wigan.cs) before the Internet domain standard was established. Most gateway sites required ad-hockery in their mailers to handle this. By July 1994 this parochial idiosyncracy was on the way out and mailers started to reject big-endian addresses. By about 1996, people would look at you strangely if you suggested such a bizarre thing might ever have existed. [Jargon File] (1998-08-09)

<data, architecture> A computer architecture in which, within a given 16- or 32-bit word, bytes at lower addresses have lower significance (the word is stored "little-end-first"). The PDP-11 and VAX families of computers and Intel microprocessors and a lot of communications and networking hardware are little-endian. The term is sometimes used to describe the ordering of units other than bytes; most often, bits within a byte. Compare big-endian, middle-endian. See NUXI problem. [Jargon File] (1995-08-16)

/bi:t"sek"shu-*l/ Said of hardware, denotes willingness to compute or pass data in either big-endian or little-endian format (depending, presumably, on a mode bit somewhere). See also NUXI problem. [Jargon File]