Date: Wed, 28 Jan 1998 12:24:25 -0500 (EST)
From: Gregory {Greg} Downing <downingg-AT-is2.nyu.edu>
Subject: Re: PLC: Thanks For Help With "Grok"


At 10:14 PM 1/27/98 +0200, you wrote:
>yes, it was "Stranger In A Strange Land" by Robert Heinlein. 
>
>thank you all.
>
>metin aktay
>

I didn't have access to OED2 when this grok query came up yesterday. Here
are OED's usage cites, for Metin A. and/or anyone else interested in the
word....


grok, v. U.S. slang. Also grock.
[Arbitrary formation by Heinlein (see quot. 1961).]
a. trans. (also with obj. clause) To understand intuitively or by empathy;
to establish rapport with.
b. intr. To empathize or communicate sympathetically (with); also, to
experience enjoyment.
1961 R. Heinlein Stranger in Strange Land iii. 18 Smith had been aware of
the doctors but had grokked that their intentions were benign.
Ibid. xxiv. 250 Now that he knew himself to be self he was free to grok ever
closer to his brothers.
1968 T. Wolfe Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test vi. 86 Instead they are all
rapping and grokking over the sound it made_as if they had synched into a
never-before-heard thing, a unique thing.
1968 Playboy June 80 He met her at an acid-rock ball and she grokked him,
this ultracool miss loaded with experience and bereft of emotion.
1969 New Yorker 15 Mar. 35, I was thinking we ought to get together
somewhere, Mr. Zzyzbyzynsky, and grok about our problems.
1975 D. Lodge Changing Places iv. 137 Nestling earth couple would like to
find water brothers to grock with in peace.
1984 InfoWorld 21 May 32 There isn't any software! Only different internal
states of hardware. It's all hardware! It's a shame programmers don't grok
that better.
Greg Downing/NYU, at greg.downing-AT-nyu.edu or downingg-AT-is2.nyu.edu



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