dig

If you dig something, then you're saying, "I get a lot of enjoyment out of this thing. I wouldn't mind being around it for a long period of time."

If you say that "you dig" in response to someone's talking to you, then you're saying, "I follow you, and I value what you are saying."

If you "dig" a person walking by, on the other hand, then you probably mean to say that "that person is really hot; I am really attracted to them. In fact, I want to spend my life with that person or at least go sleep with 'em."

So if I said, "I dig e2 now," then I would mean that "I comprehend the inner nature of e2 and understand my position in relation to e2." There's a feeling of cosmic alignmnent.

(Spelled by the program itself as "DiG", but I have no idea where this sudden burst of l33tness has come...)

Short for domain information groper (though this smells like a backronym).

It's a command-line tool used to fetch information from DNS servers. It can query all sorts of stuff from the DNS servers with various criteria.

For example, it's useful for finding out for whom some specific IP address belongs to:

holt:~$ dig -x 206.170.14.131

; <<>> DiG 8.2 <<>> -x 
;; res options: init recurs defnam dnsrch
;; got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 4
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 2, ADDITIONAL: 2
;; QUERY SECTION:
;;	131.14.170.206.in-addr.arpa, type = ANY, class = IN

;; ANSWER SECTION:
131.14.170.206.in-addr.arpa.  23h58m42s IN PTR  everything2.com.

;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
14.170.206.in-addr.arpa.  23h58m42s IN NS  ns1.upn.net.
14.170.206.in-addr.arpa.  23h58m42s IN NS  ns2.upn.net.

;; ADDITIONAL SECTION:
ns1.upn.net.		18h34m51s IN A	208.44.192.22
ns2.upn.net.		18h34m51s IN A	206.170.14.4

;; Total query time: 34 msec
;; FROM: holt to SERVER: default -- 194.157.175.2
;; WHEN: Tue Sep 18 15:42:14 2001
;; MSG SIZE  sent: 45  rcvd: 172

Of course, it's not exactly human-readable - for most needs, you probably want to use

• The host(1) program - this will return the DNS name based on IP, and IP based on DNS.
• Use whois(1) to find out who owns the IP block (ARIN's whois server knows.)

Dig (dig), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Dug (dug) or Digged (digd); p. pr. & vb. n. Digging. -- Digged is archaic.] [OE. diggen, perh. the same word as diken, dichen (see Dike, Ditch); cf. Dan. dige to dig, dige a ditch; or (?) akin to E. 1st dag. √67.]

1.

To turn up, or delve in, (earth) with a spade or a hoe; to open, loosen, or break up (the soil) with a spade, or other sharp instrument; to pierce, open, or loosen, as if with a spade.

Be first to dig the ground.
Dryden.

2.

To get by digging; as, to dig potatoes, or gold.

3.

To hollow out, as a well; to form, as a ditch, by removing earth; to excavate; as, to dig a ditch or a well.

4.

To thrust; to poke. [Colloq.]

You should have seen children . . . dig and push their mothers under the sides, saying thus to them: Look, mother, how great a lubber doth yet wear pearls.
Robynson (More's Utopia).

To dig down, to undermine and cause to fall by digging; as, to dig down a wall. --
To dig from, out of, out, or up, to get out or obtain by digging; as, to dig coal from or out of a mine; to dig out fossils; to dig up a tree. The preposition is often omitted; as, the men are digging coal, digging iron ore, digging potatoes. --
To dig in, to cover by digging; as, to dig in manure.

© Webster 1913

Dig, v. i.

1.

To work with a spade or other like implement; to do servile work; to delve.

Dig for it more than for hid treasures.
Job iii. 21.

I can not dig; to beg I am ashamed.
Luke xvi. 3.

2. (Mining)

To take ore from its bed, in distinction from making excavations in search of ore.

3.

To work like a digger; to study ploddingly and laboriously. [Cant, U.S.]

© Webster 1913

Dig, n.

1.

A thrust; a punch; a poke; as, a dig in the side or the ribs. See Dig, v. t., 4. [Colloq.]

2.

A plodding and laborious student. [Cant, U.S.]

© Webster 1913

Dig, v. i.

1.

To work hard or drudge; specif. (U. S.):

To study ploddingly and laboriously. [Colloq.]

Peter dug at his books all the harder.
Paul L. Ford.

2. (Mach.)

Of a tool: To cut deeply into the work because ill set, held at a wrong angle, or the like, as when a lathe tool is set too low and so sprung into the work.

To dig out, to depart; to leave, esp. hastily; decamp. [Slang, U. S.]

© Webster 1913

Dig, n.

1.

A tool for digging. [Dial. Eng.]

2.

An act of digging.

3.

An amount to be dug.

4. (Mining)

= Gouge.

© Webster 1913