I'm trying to pick up a bit of Haskell, and I'm alternating between awe and befuddlement. One of the really alienating things for me, trivial as this may seem, is the pattern matching idiom (x:xs). Where do those variable names come from? They could be anything -- (kernel:cob), (spam:eggs) (tipping my hand a bit), or -- most sensibly, to my mind, (h:t), standing for 'head' and 'tail'.
I suppose the x prefix is useful for indicating that both items come from the same list, so then (xh:xt) or even just (x:xt) if you're feeling especially terse. But why s? What does it mean? Where did it come from? I feel, at the moment, that knowing would help me cope with my confusion.
Perhaps I am thinking about this in the wrong way; please feel free to tell me so.