grok

/grok/ , /grohk/ , vt. [common; from the novel Stranger in a Strange Land ,
by Robert A. Heinlein, where it is a Martian word meaning literally to drink
and metaphorically to be one with ] The emphatic form is grok in fullness.
1. To understand. Connotes intimate and exhaustive knowledge. When you claim
to grok some knowledge or technique, you are asserting that you have not
merely learned it in a detached instrumental way but that it has become part
of you, part of your identity. For example, to say that you know LISP is
simply to assert that you can code in it if necessary but to say you grok
LISP is to claim that you have deeply entered the world-view and spirit of
the language, with the implication that it has transformed your view of
programming. Contrast zen , which is similar supernal understanding
experienced as a single brief flash. See also glark. 2. Used of programs,
may connote merely sufficient understanding. Almost all C compilers grok the
void type these days.

