gopher

gopher

See also: Gopher

English

pocket gopher (1)

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈɡəʊfə/

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈɡoʊfɚ/
• Rhymes: -əʊfə(ɹ)

Etymology 1

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

gopher (plural gophers)

1. A small burrowing rodent native to North and Central America, especially in the family Geomyidae (true gophers).

   Hyponym: pocket gopher

2. The ground squirrel.
3. The gopher tortoise.
4. The gopher rockfish.

Alternative forms

• gauffre

Derived terms

• gopher ball
• gopher mob
• gopher spurge

 

Translations

a small burrowing rodent

Bashkir: йомран (yomran) Belarusian: су́слік m (súslik) Chinese: Mandarin: 囊地鼠 (nángdìshǔ), 囊鼠 (nángshǔ) Czech: sysel (cs) m Finnish: taskurotta French: géomys (fr) m, gaufre (fr) m, gaufre à poche m German: Erdhörnchen n, Ziesel (de) m, Zieselmaus f, (of the family Geomyidae) Taschenratte f Hungarian: tasakospatkány (hu) Japanese: ジリス (jirisu), ハタリス (hatarisu) Navajo: naʼazísí Norwegian: jordekorn n; Bokmål: kinnposerotte m or f (of the family Geomyidae) Nynorsk: kinnposerotte f (of the family Geomyidae) Plautdietsch: Ieedkota m Polish: suseł (pl) m Portuguese: geômis m Russian: су́слик (ru) m (súslik) Slovak: syseľ m Spanish: geómido m, tuza f, taltuza f Swedish: kindpåsråtta c Ukrainian: ховра́х m (xovráx), ховрашо́к m (xovrašók)

See also

• gopher wood

Noun

gopher (plural gophers)

1. Alternative spelling of gofer
   • 2015 March 12, Bill Mann, “The film that makes me cry: Local Hero”, in The Guardian‎:

     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

• gopher on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

References

1. Douglas Harper (2001–2023), “gopher”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
2. “gopher”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
3. “gopher”, in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th edition, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016, →ISBN.