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Carpal Tunnel
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I've heard the word used only in the context of a person attaching himself/herself to someone else (or a group of people) but that person is not really wanted. The person who is glomming is considered undesirable in some way.
The conversation usually goes like this..."yeah, we just said hi to her while passing in the hall, and she glommed onto us and wouldn't leave us alone"
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Is glom ever used without "onto"?
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Is glom ever used without onto?
Good question, Father Steve.
The American Heritage Dictionary defines "glom" as a verb as follows:
"To seize upon or latch onto something".
Does this take us back to "hoi polloi" or "the hoi polloi"?
If "onto" is included in the definition, then "glom onto" is as wrong as "the hoi polloi".
But everyone says "glom onto", so we may as well glom onto the bandwagon.
On 2nd thought, I think it depends on the usage.
A person can climb a fire escape ... if they are already on it. But you have to "climb onto" a fire escape before you can actually begin to climb it. (Ditto climbing stairs if the first step is obstructed.)
The same holds true with "glom".
An oil spill is carried by the tide until it "gloms onto" a shoreline.
On the other hand, a military invader "gloms" a beachhead. The shoreline is just the place where "the glom", like "the climb", begins.
A person who intends to take [and keep] an advantage, will "glom" an advantage.
If the taking is more symbolic than real, like occupying a public place as a protest, then the protesters are simply "glomming onto" an advantage.
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I use the word perhaps every three or four months. I don't know what it's supposed to mean or where I picked it up at - though I think it must have been hanging out with other computerists. I get the same sense of "stickiness" that others report, but also the notion of attractiveness - like electrical or gravitational. Oddly, at the moment I can't think of exactly HOW I use it, but I'm pretty sure I've never used it to mean "understand."
It's one of those words on which I latch when I'm groping for a more discriptive term and think, "Well, this pretty much conveys what I intend."
k
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>never used [glom] to mean "understand."
I'd use 'grok' in that instance. :)
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Carpal Tunnel
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Being the old harrumphy(®) prescriptivist that I am, I prefer to keep grok in its sense of comprehending completely, including all the ramifications and unintended consequences. This means that, for lack of a real world referrent, it is a word that is never used.
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Grok, from the Martian, 'to comprehehnd, understand completely'.
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Carpal Tunnel
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This discussion makes me feel like a stranger in a strange land.
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This discussion makes me feel like a stranger in a strange land.
If it gloms onto you, you will grok it.
But it's sticky like a booger, and you might have to wash your hands afterwards.
I think that pretty much sums it up, Father Steve.
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Pooh-Bah
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Isn't it interesting just how a word like "grok", sourced from a book and never used anywhere else previously, can become well-enough known that a conversation about it here doesn't actually have everyone asking (a) what it means, and (b) where it comes from?
I wonder if Robert the Misogynist .. er, Heinlein would really want to be remembered for just ONE word, given his prodigous, if repetitive, literary output?
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