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nerdmore about nerd

nerd


  2  definitions  found 
 
  From  WordNet  r  1.6  [wn]: 
 
  nerd 
  n  :  a  student  who  studies  excessively  [syn:  {swot},  {grind},  {wonk}] 
 
  From  Jargon  File  (4.2.3,  23  NOV  2000)  [jargon]: 
 
  nerd  n.  1.  [mainstream  slang]  Pejorative  applied  to  anyone 
  with  an  above-average  IQ  and  few  gifts  at  small  talk  and  ordinary 
  social  rituals.  2.  [jargon]  Term  of  praise  applied  (in  conscious  ironic 
  reference  to  sense  1)  to  someone  who  knows  what's  really  important  and 
  interesting  and  doesn't  care  to  be  distracted  by  trivial  chatter  and 
  silly  status  games.  Compare  the  two  senses  of  {computer  geek}. 
 
  The  word  itself  appears  to  derive  from  the  lines  "And  then,  just 
  to  show  them  I'll  sail  to  Ka-Troo  /  And  Bring  Back  an  It-Kutch,  a 
  Preep  and  a  Proo,  /  A  Nerkle  a  Nerd,  and  a  Seersucker,  too!"  in  the 
  Dr  Seuss  book  "If  I  Ran  the  Zoo"  (1950).  (The  spellings  `nurd'  and 
  `gnurd'  also  used  to  be  current  at  MIT,  where  `nurd'  is  reported  from  as 
  far  back  as  1957.)  How  it  developed  its  mainstream  meaning  is  unclear, 
  but  sense  1  seems  to  have  entered  mass  culture  in  the  early  1970s  (there 
  are  reports  that  in  the  mid-1960s  it  meant  roughly  "annoying  misfit" 
  without  the  connotation  of  intelligence). 
 
  An  IEEE  Spectrum  article  (4/95,  page  16)  once  derived  `nerd'  in  its 
  variant  form  `knurd'  from  the  word  `drunk'  backwards,  but  this 
  bears  all  the  hallmarks  of  a  bogus  folk  etymology. 
 
  Hackers  developed  sense  2  in  self-defense  perhaps  ten  years  later 
  and  some  actually  wear  "Nerd  Pride"  buttons,  only  half  as  a  joke.  At  MIT 
  one  can  find  not  only  buttons  but  (what  else?)  pocket  protectors  bearing 
  the  slogan  and  the  MIT  seal. 
 
 




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