28 February 2014

grok

(grok)

MEANING:
verb tr.: To understand deeply and intuitively.

ETYMOLOGY:
Coined by Robert A. Heinlein in his science-fiction novel Stranger in a Strange Land. Earliest documented use: 1961.

NOTES:
In Stranger in a Strange Land, Heinlein describes grok as a Martian word meaning ‘to drink’. That’s the literal meaning, however, figuratively it means to understand something in a profound way. To grok something is to be one with it in a way that the observer and the observed become merged.

USAGE:
“Any first-time Apple user immediately groks the nature of the device.”
Melvin Bukiet; Me and My Mac; The Chronicle of Higher Education (Washington, DC); Oct 16, 2011.

(From Wordsmith.org)

Today’s aphorism

Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.

– Abraham Lincoln

On this day

28 February 1942 – birthday of Brian Jones. English guitarist for the Rolling Stones.

28 February 2007 – death of Billy Thorpe, English-born Australian rock legend. Front man for ‘Billy Thorpe and the Aztecs’. Born 29 March 1946.

______________________

29 February 1940 – Hattie McDaniels wins an Oscar for her role as Mammy in Gone With The Wind. She is the first African-American to win an Oscar.

29 February 2012 – death of Davy Jones, singer with British 1960′s rock band, The Monkees. Born on 30 December 1945.