> The version I heard was that the 'wheel bit' was used to describe the
> supervisor mode of a certain processor architecture BSD was being ported
> too. The idea then kinda stuck to make root part of the supervisor or
> wheel group.
> 
> Truth or lore - who knows, it sure sounds nice though :)

Definitely false.  This usage of "wheel" dates to Tenex, which long-predates 
BSD.  Wheel was the Tenex equivalent (more or less) of root.

	--Ed