Warning: Geekiness Ahead

[jennythereader]

I know I have a lot of fellow SF&F fans reading me, many of whom are more or less active at Cons and other aspects of fandom. Given that, I figure I can't be the only one who has incorperated terminology from some of my favorite books and movies into my everyday speech. I'm not talking about repeating a character's catch phrase because it's funny and more-or-less appropriate, but rather using the made-up words or phrases in regular conversation the same way the characters would have.

The one word I notice myself using the most is "Grok," from Heinlein's Stranger In A Strange Land. Superficially, to grok something is simply to understand it, but it implies an extremely complete understanding of all the nuances and complexities of the subject.

A phrase I sometimes use is "on the gripping hand," from Niven's The Mote In God's Eye. It's used with "on the one hand ... , on the other hand ... " to give a third option.

How about you guys? Any words or phrases you've swiped from books?

(I'm also testing if this crossposted to Facebook. Let me know?)

Comments

[belmikey.livejournal.com]

Not exactly the same thing, but watching too much classic Doctor Who at a fairly formative age led to my being prone to using British words for some things ("lift" for "elevator", for example, and "bloody" as an intensifier/expletive).

As I was immersed in Anathem, I found myself often thinking of common devices by their names in that world (e.g. "jeejah" for smartphone, "speelycaptor" for video camera), but managed somehow to translate before actually speaking these and making people look at me funny.

I used "frak" dating back to Classic Galactica, before it became more common with the advent of the 2003-2009 series.

I use "grok". Most computer geeks actually understand "grok" even if they've never read Stranger....

I'm actually sure there are others, but they've become so ingrained in my vocabulary I don't necessarily think about them!

[jennythe-reader.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't have looked at you (too) funny if you'd used Anathem terms! I enjoyed that book far too much.

I use frak once in a blue moon, but since I've never seen the show I didn't count it for myself.

[jarien.livejournal.com]

Ah, yes, frak and frell!

[belmikey.livejournal.com]

Never really adopted "frell", myself, because I haven't seen much Farscape :-)

I do find it amusing how many ways SF TV writers find to allow on-screen swearing :-)