The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Beta \Be"ta\, n. [Gr. bh^ta.]
   The second letter of the Greek alphabet, B, [beta]. See B,
   and cf. etymology of Alphabet.

   Note: Beta (B, [beta]) is used variously for classifying, as:
   (a) (Astron.) To designate some bright star, usually the
       second brightest, of a constellation, as, [beta]
       Aurig[ae].
   (b) (Chem.) To distinguish one of two or more isomers; also,
       to indicate the position of substituting atoms or groups
       in certain compounds; as, [beta]-naphthol. With acids, it
       commonly indicates that the substituent is in union with
       the carbon atom next to that to which the carboxyl group
       is attached.
       [Webster 1913 Suppl.] Betacism

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

beta
    adj 1: second in order of importance; "the candidate, considered
           a beta male, was perceived to be unable to lead his party
           to victory"
    2: preliminary or testing stage of a software or hardware
       product; "a beta version"; "beta software"
    n 1: the 2nd letter of the Greek alphabet
    2: beets [syn: Beta, genus Beta]

The Jargon File (version 4.4.7, 29 Dec 2003):

beta
 /bay't@/, /be?t@/, /bee?t@/, n.

    1. Mostly working, but still under test; usu. used with ?in?: in beta. In
    the Real World, hardware or software systems often go through two stages
    of release testing: Alpha (in-house) and Beta (out-house?). Beta releases
    are generally made to a group of lucky (or unlucky) trusted customers.

    2. Anything that is new and experimental. ?His girlfriend is in beta? means
    that he is still testing for compatibility and reserving judgment.

    3. Flaky; dubious; suspect (since beta software is notoriously buggy).

    Historical note: More formally, to beta-test is to test a pre-release
    (potentially unreliable) version of a piece of software by making it
    available to selected (or self-selected) customers and users. This term
    derives from early 1960s terminology for product cycle checkpoints, first
    used at IBM but later standard throughout the industry. Alpha Test was the
    unit, module, or component test phase; Beta Test was initial system test.
    These themselves came from earlier A- and B-tests for hardware. The A-test
    was a feasibility and manufacturability evaluation done before any
    commitment to design and development. The B-test was a demonstration that
    the engineering model functioned as specified. The C-test (corresponding to
    today's beta) was the B-test performed on early samples of the production
    design, and the D test was the C test repeated after the model had been in
    production a while.


The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (30 December 2018):

BETA

   Kristensen, Madsen , Moller-Pedersen &
   Nygaard, 1983.  Object-oriented language with block structure,
   coroutines, concurrency, strong typing, part objects,
   separate objects and classless objects.  Central feature is a
   single abstraction mechanism called "patterns", a
   generalisation of classes, providing instantiation and
   hierarchical inheritance for all objects including procedures
   and processes.

   Mjolner Informatics ApS, Aarhus, implementations for Mac, Sun,
   HP, Apollo.

   E-mail: .

   Mailing list: .

   ["Object-Oriented Programming in the BETA Programming
   Language", Ole Lehrmann et al, A-W June 1993, ISBN
   0-201-62430-3].

   [Jargon File]

   (1995-10-31)


The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (30 December 2018):

beta

   /bay't*/, /be't*/ or (Commonwealth) /bee't*/

   See beta conversion, beta test.

   [Jargon File]