From: paul@hawksbill.sprintmrn.com (Paul Ferguson)
Date: Wed, 15 Jun 94 17:31:33 PDT
To: osten@hurricane.seas.ucla.edu
Subject: Re: Cypherpunks' mail database does exist (fwd)
In-Reply-To: <9406152204.AA18271@hurricane.seas.ucla.edu>
Message-ID: <9406160133.AA20985@hawksbill.sprintmrn.com>
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> 
> > 
> > It does my heart good to hear someone use the term 'grok' -- I don't
> > hear many folks use that term very much anymore.   ,-)
> > 
> > - paul
> >  
> > 
> What does it mean?
> 

You _would_ ask.   

grok  /grok/, var. /grohk/ [from the novel _Stranger_in_a_Strange_Land_,
by Robert A. Heinlein, where it is a Martian word meaning literally
'to drink' and metaphorically 'to be one with'] vt. 1. To understand,
usually in a global sense. Connotes intimate and exhaustive knowledge.
Contrast zen, similar supernal understanding as a single brief flash.
See also glark. 2. Used of programs, may connote merely sufficient
understanding. "Almost all C compilers grok the void type these days."


(From "The New Hackers Dictionary," edited by Eric Raymond, adapted
from the original Internet "jargon file")

- paul