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A.Word.A.Day--grok Wish to share your love of words? Send a gift subscription of A.Word.A.Day. Pronunciation: WAV or RealAudio grok (grok) verb tr. Slang. To understand profoundly through intuition or empathy. [Coined by Robert A. Heinlein in his "Stranger in a Strange Land".] "... Well, you have to grok your plants to get good results--get to know them as seeds and as seedlings and you'll really know them as mature plants." Cox, Jeff, Meet your experts in the Southeast!, Organic Gardening, 1 Apr 1997. All fiction writers invent stories but some go so far as to invent words to help tell the tales. In his 1961 science-fiction novel Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert Anson Heinlein told the story of Valentine Michael Smith, an earthling raised by Martians on the red planet, and in the process helped us grok what it means to be human. This week's AWAD is about words that took birth in novels, stories, and poems and are now part of the English language. -Anu X-Bonus The secret of education is respecting the pupil. -Ralph Waldo Emerson

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