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

[jennythe-reader.livejournal.com]

I've never heard anyone who wasn't some sort of geek use grok, but yeah, I think it has escaped fandom.

[belmikey.livejournal.com]

Like I said, even the non-fannish computer geeks (and they do exist) tend to use "grok". In software and systems circles, it tends to refer to a complete and deep understanding of some language, subsystem, piece of code, or protocol. It's used with some reverence toward the person it describes if the thing being referred to is considered especially arcane to most people.