gofer

See also: go-fer and gòfer

English

Alternative forms

Etymology

From go +‎ fer (for), as in “go for coffee” or “go for that document” etc. Possibly also a pun on the rodent gopher, animals known for both their vast tunneling and their hoarding activities.

Pronunciation

  • (US) IPA(key): /ˈɡoʊfɚ/
  • Homophone: gopher

Noun

gofer (plural gofers)

  1. (informal) A worker who runs errands; an errand boy.
    • 1989 December 3, Pam Mitchell, Ronnie Gilbert, “Carrying On The Honorable Tradition Of 'Protest Music'”, in Gay Community News, volume 17, number 21, page 9:
      They were learning to do what in all my years in the music business I never saw — which was women running a record company, women producing concerts, women learning to be engineers, women moving into this absolutely all-male enclave. You never saw a woman in any of those positions, in any of that work except as secretaries and "go-fers".
    • 2001, William Hairston, Passion and Politics:
      More and more people agreed to help with the mailings, the hand-distribution of flyers, and telephonings. Others agreed to be gofers and fetchers.

Synonyms

Translations

Further reading

Anagrams

Tagalog

Etymology

Borrowed from English gopher, from Biblical Hebrew גֹּ֫פֶר (gōfer).

Pronunciation

  • (Standard Tagalog) IPA(key): /ˈɡofeɾ/ [ˈɡoː.fɛɾ], /ɡoˈfeɾ/ [ɡoˈfɛɾ]
    • IPA(key): (with nativization) /ˈɡopeɾ/ [ˈɡoː.pɛɾ], (with nativization) /ɡoˈpeɾ/ [ɡoˈpɛɾ]
  • Rhymes: -ofeɾ, (with nativization) -opeɾ, -eɾ
  • Syllabification: go‧fer

Noun

gofer or gofér (Baybayin spelling ᜄᜓᜉᜒᜇ᜔) (biblical)

  1. gopher wood
    • 1905, Ang Dating Biblia, Manila: Philippines Bible Society, Genesis 6:14:
      Gumawa ka ng isang sasakyang kahoy na gofer; gagawa ka ng mga silid sa sasakyan, at iyong sisiksikan sa loob at sa labas ng sahing.
      Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch.

See also