🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <12...@phoenix.Princeton.EDU>, pa...@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (Paul Lansky) writes:
>
> Can somebody enlighten me as the the [computer?] etymology of "grok".  It's
> a great word!
>

The etymology ain't computer, it's sci fi...

The Hacker's Dictionary (Guy Steele, Don Woods, et al, Harper
and Row, 1983) defines grok as:

GROK (grahk) verb.
To understand, usually in a global sense; especially, to
understand all the implications and consequences of making
a change. Example: "JONL is the only one who groks the MAC-LISP
compiler".
This word comes from the science fiction novel 'Stranger in a
Strange Land' by Robert Heinlein, where it is a Martian word
meaning roughly "to be one with."

So there you go... The 'Hacker' in the title of the book is the
older meaning of the word, although the 7th definition of
'Hacker' given in the book is 'A malicious or inquisitive
meddler who tries to discover information by poking around...'

Lots of folklore in there amongst the definitions, too.