(cryptography, physics) In various fields such as cryptography and physics, a conventional name for the person or system that sends a message to another person or system conventionally known as Bob.
"It's a stupid name enough!" Humpty Dumpty interrupted impatiently. "What does it mean?"
"Must a name mean something?" Alice asked doubtfully.
"Of course it must," Humpty Dumpty said with a short laugh, "my name means the shape I am - and a good handsome shape it is, too. With a name like yours, you might be any shape, almost."
1968Kurt Vonnegut, Welcome to the Monkey House, Delacorte Press, page xiv:
She was heavenly to look at, and graceful, both in and out of water. She was a sculptress. She was christened 'Alice', but she used to deny that she was really an Alice. I agreed. Everybody agreed. Sometime in a dream maybe I will find out what her real name was.
