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Meaning of GOPHER

Pronunciation:  'gowfur

WordNet Dictionary
 
 Definition: 
  1. [n]  burrowing edible land tortoise of southeastern North America
  2. [n]  burrowing rodent of the family Geomyidae having large external cheek pouches; of Central America and southwestern North America
  3. [n]  any of various terrestrial burrowing rodents of Old and New Worlds; often destroy crops
  4. [n]  a zealously energetic person (especially a salesman)
 
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 Synonyms: goffer, gopher tortoise, gopher turtle, Gopherus polypemus, ground squirrel, pocket gopher, pouched rat, spermophile
 
 See Also: antelope chipmunk, antelope squirrel, Arctic ground squirrel, busy bee, Citellus, Citellus citellus, Citellus lateralis, Citellus leucurus, Citellus parryi, Citellus richardsoni, Citellus variegatus, eager beaver, family Geomyidae, flickertail, genus Citellus, genus Gopherus, genus Spermophilus, Geomyidae, Geomys bursarius, Geomys pinetis, Gopherus, live wire, mantled ground squirrel, northern pocket gopher, parka squirrel, plains pocket gopher, pocket rat, Richardson ground squirrel, rock squirrel, sharpie, sharpy, souslik, southeastern pocket gopher, Spermophilus, squirrel, suslik, Thomomys bottae, Thomomys talpoides, tortoise, valley pocket gopher, whitetail antelope squirrel

 

 

Webster's 1913 Dictionary
 
 Definition: 
\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.
 
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Computing Dictionary
 
 Definition: 

A distributed document retrieval system which started as a Campus Wide Information System at the University of Minnesota, and which was popular in the early 1990s.

Gopher is defined in RFC 1436. The protocol is like a primitive form of HTTP (which came later). Gopher lacks the MIME features of HTTP, but expressed the equivalent of a document's MIME type with a one-character code for the "Gopher object type". At time of writing (2001), all Web browers should be able to access gopher servers, although few gopher servers exist anymore.

Tim Berners-Lee, in his book "Weaving The Web" (pp.72-73), related his opinion that it was not so much the protocol limitations of gopher that made people abandon it in favor of HTTP/HTML, but instead the legal missteps on the part of the university where it was developed:

"It was just about this time, spring 1993, that the University of Minnesota decided that it would ask for a license fee from certain classes of users who wanted to use gopher. Since the gopher software being picked up so widely, the university was going to charge an annual fee. The browser, and the act of browsing, would be free, and the server software would remain free to nonprofit and educational institutions. But any other users, notably companies, would have to pay to use gopher server software.

"This was an act of treason in the academic community and the Internet community. Even if the university never charged anyone a dime, the fact that the school had announced it was reserving the right to charge people for the use of the gopher protocols meant it had crossed the line. To use the technology was too risky. Industry dropped gopher like a hot potato."

 
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Dream Dictionary
 
 Definition: Seeing a gopher in your dream, suggests that feel used and manipulated by others. The dream may be a pun on "go for" it. It may thus represent your initiative to take action.
 
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Easton Bible Dictionary
 
 Definition: 

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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