It's not an "in-joke". It follows conventions set by the Python language: - "def" instead of "define" - "cls" instead of "Class" - "sys" instead of "system"

It's not an "in-joke". It follows conventions set by the Python language: - "def" instead of "define" - "cls" instead of "Class" - "sys" instead of "system" - "os" instead of "operating_system_facilities" - "ntpath" instead of "windows_path_names" - "abc" instead of "abstract_base_classes" Python aggressively abbreviates almost everything in common use. If it were in the stdlib, perhaps it would be the built-in names "attrs" and "attrib" rather than having dots in them, but the names would indubitably still be very short.