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

[jarien.livejournal.com]

Crossposted to Facebook, I saw it there first.

I've also stolen grok, but use it sparingly.

"Oh for cat's sake!" comes out far, far more often. I stole it from one of Terry Goodkind's Shannara novels, I think in the second trilogy.

[jennythe-reader.livejournal.com]

I think I've heard you use that, but it's been so long since I've read any of the Shannara books that I didn't recognize it.

[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!

[dulcinbradbury.livejournal.com]

I like "Ye Gods & little fish" which I think I lifted from UserFriendly back when I used to read it. Not exactly SF, but, sort of.

I use grok on occasion.

Umm... "Pain in me gulliver" & "horrorshow" from A Clockwork Orange. Just a little disturbing I suppose.

[yendi]

I think that "Grok" has transcended its origins; in IT, folks use it all the time even with no awareness of Heinlein.

I know that we have a bunch of these that we use at home, but other than catch-phrases or in jokes ('song and I say "like a roof pig" whenever someone says that something's "unexpected"), I can't remember them off-hand. The one exception is "frak."

[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.

[jennythe-reader.livejournal.com]

You're stealing from A Clockwork Orange. Yeah, I do find that a little disturbing. Interesting, though. It's not one I would expect language to escape from.

[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!

[seawasp]

That would be Terry BROOKS, unless there's been some... very interesting crossover activity lately.

[seawasp]

Most of the things I use come from media sources, not written ones. I don't use "grok", though, partly because I really didn't like Stranger at all.

[nounsandverbs]

I use "grok" on occasion, and I also talk about sides of the Force. (For example, while I'm using an iPod to post this, I have not gone all the way to the Apple side of the Force.)

[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 :-)

[belmikey.livejournal.com]

I've been known to use "droogies", but then, I also took Russian, so it got reinforced a bit...

[glinda-w.livejournal.com]

Huh. I got "ye gods and little fish" from my parents, in the early '50s...

[belmikey.livejournal.com]

I tend to use "Force" oriented concepts primarily in reference to heraldry. After years of people muttering about evil heralds in Northshield, we decided to embrace it, declaring ourselves the Dark Heralds of the Sith, and occasionally using such phrases as, "I find your lack of documentation disturbing!" and "The Voice is strong with this one!" (for a particularly notable up-and-coming voice herald).

I've also been called into court in an official capacity only to have the musical consort that was providing pre-court entertainment strike up the Imperial March.

That said, for some reason, nobody seems to find "Darth Mikey" especially terrifying. I think it's somewhat akin to the Dread Pirate Westley...

[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.

[jarien.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I crossed my Terry's! That's what I get for posting from work, silly mistake. :)

[gwenlianna.livejournal.com]

I can't think of any specific terms that I've picked up from literature. A friend's repeated use of "grok" was actually what made me hunt up "Stranger in a Strange Land" in the first place.