Monday word: grok

[ersatz-read.livejournal.com]

grok (ɡräk) verb

To understand intuitively or by empathy.

That's a rough definition.  WIkipedia will, as usual, gives a more elaborate description.

Etymology:  coined by Robert A. Heinlein in his 1961 novel Stranger in a Strange Land.

I'm curious to know how common the word is today.  In my college days (over 25 years ago, and roughly when I read Stranger in a Strange Land), people I hung out with used it all the time.  In my brief stint of hardcore software development after that, it was also common.  Seems like I've heard it rarely in the last decade, but I'm not sure if it's become less common or if it's because I run in different circles these days.

Comments

[prettygoodword.livejournal.com]

My sense is that it's less common, especially as the Boomers that propagated it from Heinlein age out of the workforce and the general cultural wellspring.

[anais-pf.livejournal.com]

I don't hear it often these days, but my friends and I all know what it means and would use it like any other word in conversation. Then again we are all Baby Boomers. I suppose it depends whether Baby Boomers with children use it around their children. And, of course whether younger people still read that book.

[gneu.livejournal.com]

I've never heard it at all, but I can understand something from a popular movie being pushed into everyday jargon for a while. I'm still sprouting references from Dead Poets Society often.

[flwyd.livejournal.com]

I still hear "grok" in software contexts and in casual conversation with folks who are involved with tech, though it feels less common than when I started learning about *nix in the mid-late '90s. It shows up reasonably often on Twitter (https://twitter.com/search?q=grok).