[glyph]

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.

[carapace]

It's an "in-joke" in the sense that it doesn't make sense until you get the joke. There are people in this post discussion asking "What means .s and .ib?" It's not obvious to everyone.