gopher
See also: Gopher
English edit
Pronunciation edit
Etymology 1 edit
Perhaps an adaptation of Cajun French gaufre (literally “honeycomb, waffle”), based on the analogy of holes in the ground to the indentations in a honeycomb or a waffle (doublet of waffle).[1][2] Alternatively, from Muskogean.[3]
Noun edit
gopher (plural gophers)
- A small burrowing rodent native to North and Central America, especially in the family Geomyidae (true gophers).
- Hyponym: pocket gopher
- A ground squirrel (Marmotinae spp.).
- A gopher tortoise (Gopherus spp.).
- A gopher rockfish (Sebastes carnatus).
Alternative forms edit
Derived terms edit
- camas pocket gopher
- gopher ball
- gopher mob
- gopher snake
- gopher spurge (Euphorbia spp.)
- pocket gopher (Geomyidae sp.)
- striped gopher
Translations edit
a small burrowing rodent
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See also edit
Etymology 2 edit
Noun edit
gopher (plural gophers)
- Alternative spelling of gofer
- 2015 March 12, Bill Mann, “The film that makes me cry: Local Hero”, in The Guardian[1]:
- Crackpot Texan oil magnate Felix Happer (Burt Lancaster) gets the idea that a small Scottish fishing village would be a marvellous acquisition for his so-rich-it-makes-you-sick company, Knox Oil and Gas, so he sends an executive gopher named MacIntyre (because that sounds Scottish, yeah – played by Peter Riegert) to close the deal and get the pipeline pencilled in.
Further reading edit
References edit
- ^ Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “gopher”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
- ^ “gopher”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
- ^ “gopher”, in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th edition, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016, →ISBN.