zlacker

Not related to this discussion but, it's fun to see a word from The Left Hand Of Darkness here.

>>Nition+(OP)
Near as I can tell, shifgrethor means something like personal dignity, prestige among peers, legitimacy, autonomy, and authority -- all at once. King Argaven considers Genly Ai's existence (and his offer of union with the Ekumen) a threat to his sovereignty as king, because of that Karhide's sovereignty as a nation, also because of that his worth as an individual. He can't separate these concepts because they are all one, they are all shifgrethor.

This insight helped me understand the mindset of the IBM executives, which I wouldn't have before; just dismissed it as wrongheaded pre-boomer silliness. The executives saw demeaning themselves with the scutwork of looking things up for oneself as an attack on their position, their dignity and worth as individuals, and the organization as a whole -- perhaps even society as a whole. Those filthy hippies with their (sissy voice) "collaborative work environments" and their "interactive terminals". They're working for the Reds, I tell ya, trying to unravel the nation from the inside!

I owe LeGuin a profound debt for opening my mind to mentalities vastly different to my own, yet still essential to the history of the computing world I live in.

>>bitwiz+v91
Absolutely, I think you used the word perfectly.

Have you read Stranger In A Strange Land? The alien word "grok" from that book has a similar way of being useful, and that one actually managed to make it into general speech somehow - at least by hacker types. In the book it's an alien word that literally means "to drink", though it really means something like "attain a real understanding of."

>>Nition+4C1
Yes, I read Stranger in a Strange Land, but I grokked "grok" before actually reading the book: the Jargon File has an entry for it and uses it liberally.