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In the ‘50s, nerds were “square,” but the 1984 movie Revenge of the Nerds started to hint that it was “hip to be square.” Computer culture also helped nerd take flight, but the word wasn’t explicitly associated with technology. These include a long-running joke of spelling drunk backwards (“knurd”), implying that studious people don’t drink or party a 1930s slang term for nuts (“nerts”) and a ventriloquist dummy popular in the ‘40s named Mortimer Snerd. Seuss (and possibly informing his own use). And, why use nerd and not “nerkle”? Nerd had to have been around before Seuss, but the doc certainly made it more popular.Įtymologists think nerd has a combination of influences, in addition to Dr. The problem with the Seuss origin theory is that it’s very unlikely teens (who probably weren’t reading Seuss) picked up the word and used it so much that it became a national story-in only a year. Suess also introduced nerd’s friends, “preep,” “proo,” and “nerkle” in the same book.Ī year later, Newsweek reported on nerd’s popularity with slang-slinging youth of the day: “… someone who once would be called a drip or a square is now, regrettably, a nerd.” Seuss coined the word, as the name of a bizarre-looking creature, in his 1950 children’s book If I Ran the Zoo. (Could the 1960s have anything to do with that?) The most frequently cited story is that Dr. It’s pretty common in slang to liken a foolish person to a taboo body part. Dork also may be related to dirk, a slang term for “penis” dating all the way back to the late 1700s.ĭork went on to mean people who do silly, ridiculous things. Other origin theories of dork are that it’s an alteration of d*ck, which would make sense for dork’s initial, phallic meaning. This spelling of dorque suggests a connection to Dorque, a 1940s slang nickname for a solider. So, back in the 1960s, dork meant “penis.” (Must’ve been something in the air in the ’60s …) One of the earliest instances comes from the 1961 novel Valhalla by Jere Peacock, where dork had a fancy-seeming spelling: “You satisfy many women with that dorque?” Dingleberry confirms dweeb’s “dimwitted” character, which he claims is a result of the dweeb’s parents’ obsession with certain mind-altering substances. In an odd 2012 book called The Lizzard of Ozz, an author named Dr. This isn’t to say that dwarves are unintelligent! What may be an explanation for dweeb’s existence is that ‘60s college kids riffed on the physically short stature of dwarves and the short brain span of “feeble-mindedness” and came up with dweeb to describe a dimwit. Dweeb’s associations with unintelligence stem from the possibility that the word is a fusion of dwarf and feeb (short for “feeble-minded person”). This word is the youngest of the four, found in the 1960s. Seuss? Oh yeah, the bizarre origin stories we were talking about. It seems as though intelligence and social skills play a big part in a lot of these definitions, but why? Where did these words come from? Dweeb is “wimp a stupid or uninteresting person.” There’s one more term we can add to this geeky list: dweeb. Geek : “a digital-technology expert or enthusiast” and “a person who has excessive enthusiasm for and some expertise about a specialized subject or activity” Nerd : “socially awkward” and “an intelligent but single-minded person obsessed with a nonsocial hobby or pursuit” So, be mindful!Īlright, what sets these terms apart? Let’s start with the definitions:ĭork : “a silly, out-of-touch person who tends to look odd or behave ridiculously around others” Calling someone a nerd can be a compliment or a dis, depending on the person and context. What are the differences?įirst and foremost: Remember, as with all words (including conventional slurs like b*tch), these terms can be used in jest or in anger, to praise or disparage. Bonus: they generally have absolutely nothing to do with book-smarts and glasses.
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We wanted to explore what sets these terms apart and, as the Word Nerds that we are, we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to highlight their truly bizarre biographies. Based on popular usage of these terms, geeks and nerds are a new brand of cool kid.
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Today, being a geek or a nerd no longer implies that you’ll receive a horrible wedgie and get thrown in a locker. Yet, some of these terms have grown up a little more than others, and even wriggled away from their initial negative connotations. There’s a lot of overlap in the meanings of nerd, geek, and dork. “The geek shall inherit the earth,” indeed. Yet, those so-called social rejects were destined to rule the world in the form of Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, et al. These names used to be roughly interchangeable when distinguishing the social outcasts from the in-crowd in school.