Grok

Grok (pronounced grahk) is a verb roughly meaning "to understand completely" or more formally "to achieve complete intuitive understanding". It was coined by science fiction writer Robert Heinlein in his novel Stranger in a Strange Land, where it is part of the fictional Martian language and introduced to English speakers by a man raised by Martians.

It is similar in meaning to the German "kennen", French "connaître", Spanish "conocer" to contrast with "wissen", "savoir", "saber"). Heinlein was familiar enough with the languages to realize that the concept was missing from English.

In the Martian tongue, it literally means "to drink" but is used in a much wider context. A character in the novel (not the primary user) defines it:


 * "Grok means to understand so thoroughly that the observer becomes a part of the observed&mdash;to merge, blend, intermarry, lose identity in group experience. It means almost everything that we mean by religion, philosophy, and science&mdash;and it means as little to us (because we are from Earth) as color means to a blind man."

Using the broad meaning above, the term gained real-world currency as slang among counterculture groups including hippies. A popular t-shirt and bumper sticker slogan for 1970s Trekkies was I grok Spock (often showing the Star Trek character using the Vulcan salute). Today it is chiefly used by science-fiction fans, geeks and some pagans, particularly those belonging to the Church of All Worlds, but is attested and understood more widely.