gofer

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See also: go-fer

English

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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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

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Noun

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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.

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