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gopher

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gopher

 

  6  definitions  found 
 
  From  Webster's  Revised  Unabridged  Dictionary  (1913)  [web1913]: 
 
  Prairie  \Prai"rie\,  n.  [F.,  an  extensive  meadow,  OF  praerie, 
  LL  prataria  fr  L.  pratum  a  meadow.] 
  1.  An  extensive  tract  of  level  or  rolling  land,  destitute  of 
  trees,  covered  with  coarse  grass,  and  usually 
  characterized  by  a  deep,  fertile  soil.  They  abound 
  throughout  the  Mississippi  valley,  between  the  Alleghanies 
  and  the  Rocky  mountains. 
 
  From  the  forests  and  the  prairies,  From  the  great 
  lakes  of  the  northland.  --Longfellow. 
 
  2.  A  meadow  or  tract  of  grass;  especially,  a  so  called 
  natural  meadow. 
 
  {Prairie  chicken}  (Zo["o]l.),  any  American  grouse  of  the 
  genus  {Tympanuchus},  especially  {T.  Americanus}  (formerly 
  {T.  cupido}),  which  inhabits  the  prairies  of  the  central 
  United  States.  Applied  also  to  the  sharp-tailed  grouse. 
 
  {Prairie  clover}  (Bot.),  any  plant  of  the  leguminous  genus 
  {Petalostemon},  having  small  rosy  or  white  flowers  in 
  dense  terminal  heads  or  spikes.  Several  species  occur  in 
  the  prairies  of  the  United  States. 
 
  {Prairie  dock}  (Bot.),  a  coarse  composite  plant  ({Silphium 
  terebinthaceum})  with  large  rough  leaves  and  yellow 
  flowers,  found  in  the  Western  prairies. 
 
  {Prairie  dog}  (Zo["o]l.),  a  small  American  rodent  ({Cynomys 
  Ludovicianus})  allied  to  the  marmots.  It  inhabits  the 
  plains  west  of  the  Mississippi.  The  prairie  dogs  burrow  in 
  the  ground  in  large  warrens,  and  have  a  sharp  bark  like 
  that  of  a  dog.  Called  also  {prairie  marmot}. 
 
  {Prairie  grouse}.  Same  as  {Prairie  chicken},  above. 
 
  {Prairie  hare}  (Zo["o]l.),  a  large  long-eared  Western  hare 
  ({Lepus  campestris}).  See  {Jack  rabbit},  under  2d  {Jack}. 
 
 
  {Prairie  hawk},  {Prairie  falcon}  (Zo["o]l.),  a  falcon  of 
  Western  North  America  ({Falco  Mexicanus}).  The  upper  parts 
  are  brown.  The  tail  has  transverse  bands  of  white;  the 
  under  parts  longitudinal  streaks  and  spots  of  brown. 
 
  {Prairie  hen}.  (Zo["o]l.)  Same  as  {Prairie  chicken},  above. 
 
 
  {Prairie  itch}  (Med.),  an  affection  of  the  skin  attended  with 
  intense  itching,  which  is  observed  in  the  Northern  and 
  Western  United  States;  --  also  called  {swamp  itch}, 
  {winter  itch}. 
 
  {Prairie  marmot}.  (Zo["o]l.)  Same  as  {Prairie  dog},  above. 
 
  {Prairie  mole}  (Zo["o]l.),  a  large  American  mole  ({Scalops 
  argentatus}),  native  of  the  Western  prairies. 
 
  {Prairie  pigeon},  {plover},  or  {snipe}  (Zo["o]l.),  the  upland 
  plover.  See  {Plover},  n.,  2. 
 
  {Prairie  rattlesnake}  (Zo["o]l.),  the  massasauga. 
 
  {Prairie  snake}  (Zo["o]l.),  a  large  harmless  American  snake 
  ({Masticophis  flavigularis}).  It  is  pale  yellow,  tinged 
  with  brown  above. 
 
  {Prairie  squirrel}  (Zo["o]l.),  any  American  ground  squirrel 
  of  the  genus  {Spermophilus},  inhabiting  prairies;  -- 
  called  also  {gopher}. 
 
  {Prairie  turnip}  (Bot.),  the  edible  turnip-shaped  farinaceous 
  root  of  a  leguminous  plant  ({Psoralea  esculenta})  of  the 
  Upper  Missouri  region;  also  the  plant  itself  Called  also 
  {pomme  blanche},  and  {pomme  de  prairie}. 
 
  {Prairie  warbler}  (Zo["o]l.),  a  bright-colored  American 
  warbler  ({Dendroica  discolor}).  The  back  is  olive  yellow, 
  with  a  group  of  reddish  spots  in  the  middle;  the  under 
  parts  and  the  parts  around  the  eyes  are  bright  yellow;  the 
  sides  of  the  throat  and  spots  along  the  sides,  black; 
  three  outer  tail  feathers  partly  white. 
 
  {Prairie  wolf}.  (Zo["o]l.)  See  {Coyote}. 
 
  From  Webster's  Revised  Unabridged  Dictionary  (1913)  [web1913]: 
 
  Gopher  \Go"pher\,  n.  [F.  gaufre  waffle,  honeycomb.  See 
  {Gauffer}.]  (Zo["o]l.) 
  1.  One  of  several  North  American  burrowing  rodents  of  the 
  genera  {Geomys}  and  {Thomomys},  of  the  family 
  {Geomyid[ae]};  --  called  also  {pocket  gopher}  and  {pouched 
  rat}.  See  {Pocket  gopher},  and  {Tucan}. 
 
  Note:  The  name  was  originally  given  by  French  settlers  to 
  many  burrowing  rodents,  from  their  honeycombing  the 
  earth. 
 
  2.  One  of  several  western  American  species  of  the  genus 
  {Spermophilus},  of  the  family  {Sciurid[ae]};  as  the  gray 
  gopher  ({Spermophilus  Franklini})  and  the  striped  gopher 
  ({S.  tridecemlineatus});  --  called  also  {striped  prairie 
  squirrel},  {leopard  marmot},  and  {leopard  spermophile}. 
  See  {Spermophile}. 
 
  3.  A  large  land  tortoise  ({Testudo  Carilina})  of  the  Southern 
  United  States,  which  makes  extensive  burrows. 
 
  4.  A  large  burrowing  snake  ({Spilotes  Couperi})  of  the 
  Southern  United  States. 
 
  {Gopher  drift}  (Mining),  an  irregular  prospecting  drift, 
  following  or  seeking  the  ore  without  regard  to  regular 
  grade  or  section.  --Raymond. 
 
  From  WordNet  r  1.6  [wn]: 
 
  gopher 
  n  1:  a  zealously  energetic  person  (especially  a  salesman)  [syn:  {goffer}] 
  2:  any  of  various  terrestrial  burrowing  rodents  of  Old  and  New 
  Worlds;  often  destroy  crops  [syn:  {ground  squirrel},  {spermophile}] 
  3:  burrowing  rodent  of  the  family  Geomyidae  having  large 
  external  cheek  pouches;  of  Central  America  and 
  southwestern  North  America  [syn:  {pocket  gopher},  {pouched 
  rat}] 
  4:  burrowing  edible  land  tortoise  of  southeastern  North  America 
  [syn:  {gopher  tortoise},  {gopher  turtle},  {Gopherus 
  polypemus}] 
 
  From  Jargon  File  (4.2.3,  23  NOV  2000)  [jargon]: 
 
  gopher  n.  A  type  of  Internet  service  first  floated  around  1991 
  and  obsolesced  around  1995  by  the  World  Wide  Web.  Gopher  presents  a 
  menuing  interface  to  a  tree  or  graph  of  links;  the  links  can  be  to 
  documents,  runnable  programs,  or  other  gopher  menus  arbitrarily  far 
  across  the  net. 
 
  Some  claim  that  the  gopher  software,  which  was  originally  developed 
  at  the  University  of  Minnesota,  was  named  after  the  Minnesota 
  Gophers  (a  sports  team).  Others  claim  the  word  derives  from  American 
  slang  `gofer'  (from  "go  for",  dialectal  "go  fer"),  one  whose  job  is  to 
  run  and  fetch  things  Finally,  observe  that  gophers  dig  long  tunnels, 
  and  the  idea  of  tunneling  through  the  net  to  find  information  was  a 
  defining  metaphor  for  the  developers.  Probably  all  three  things  were 
  true,  but  with  the  first  two  coming  first  and  the  gopher-tunnel  metaphor 
  serendipitously  adding  flavor  and  impetus  to  the  project  as  it  developed 
  out  of  its  concept  stage. 
 
 
 
  From  The  Free  On-line  Dictionary  of  Computing  (13  Mar  01)  [foldoc]: 
 
  Gopher 
 
    A  popular  distributed  document 
  retrieval  system  which  started  as  a  {Campus  Wide  Information 
  System}  at  the  {University  of  Minnesota}.  Many  {host}s  on  the 
  {Internet}  now  run  Gopher  servers  which  provide  a  menu  of 
  documents.  A  document  may  be  a  plain  text  file,  sound,  image, 
  submenu  or  other  {Gopher  object  type}.  It  may  be  stored  on 
  another  host  or  may  provide  the  ability  to  search  through 
  certain  files  for  a  given  string. 
 
  Gopher  is  defined  in  {RFC  1436}. 
 
  To  access  Gopher  you  need  a  {Gopher  client}.  Next  you  need  to 
  know  the  name  of  a  gopher  {server}.  A  good  place  to  start  is 
  gopher.micro.umn.edu  {(gopher://gopher.micro.umn.edu/)}. 
 
  The  latest  releases  of  gopher  software  (including  {client} 
  software)  are  available  via  {anonymous  FTP}  from 
  boombox.micro.umn.edu  in  the  /pub/gopher  directory 
  {(ftp://boombox.micro.umn.edu/pub/gopher)}. 
 
  Gopher  has  been  largely  superceded  by  the  {World-Wide  Web} 
  (WWW),  a  similar  document  retrieval  system  which  includes 
  access  to  Gopher  documents  as  one  of  its  {access  schemes}. 
 
  (1995-05-07) 
 
 
 
  From  Easton's  1897  Bible  Dictionary  [easton]: 
 
  Gopher 
  a  tree  from  the  wood  of  which  Noah  was  directed  to  build  the  ark 
  (Gen.  6:14).  It  is  mentioned  only  there  The  LXX.  render  this 
  word  by  "squared  beams,"  and  the  Vulgate  by  "planed  wood."  Other 
  versions  have  rendered  it  pine"  and  "cedar;"  but  the  weight  of 
  authority  is  in  favour  of  understanding  by  it  the  cypress  tree, 
  which  grows  abundantly  in  Chaldea  and  Armenia.




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