Question

Ok, this has been an on-going annoyance, so naturally I thought to bring it here.

In the tcsh man page the phrase q.v. is used, and I have no clue why those four characters are inserted.

Is it self referential ? a technical reference ? a documentation or language convention ?

Here are some examples in context.

(+) Variables may be made read-only with `set -r  (q.v.)

Users who need to use the
  same set of files with both csh(1) and tcsh can have only a ~/.cshrc
  which checks for the existence of the tcsh shell variable (q.v.)

end-of-file (not bound)
   Signals an end of file, causing the shell to exit unless the
   ignoreeof shell variable (q.v.) is set to prevent this.  See
   also delete-char-or-list-or-eof.

Answer 1

It s a language thing. It s Latin for "quod vide", which basically says you can look up more information on the subject elsewhere.

Answer 2

quod vide - latin for where to look (for further references)

Answer 3

q.v. stands for quod vide (which see) - used to reference material mentioned in text

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