nerd -
noun (People and Society) (Youth Culture) In US slang: a contemptible or boring person,
especially one who is
studious , conventional, or 'square'; a dweeb. Etymology: Of uncertain origin: possibly a euphemistic alteration of
turd , but perhaps simply an allusion to a nonsense word used in Dr Seuss's children's book If I Ran the Zoo (1950): 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! History and Usage:
Nerd itself has been in use in US slang since the sixties, but enjoyed a fashion in the late seventies and early eighties which led to the development of a number of derivatives and compounds.
Notable among these are the adjectives
nerdish,
nerdlike, and
nerdy and the nouns
nerdishness and
nerdism. The
nerd affects a fussy, conventional (and, some would
say , pretentious) style of dress and appearance which became known as the
nerd look; the quintessential
characteristic of the
nerd, a plastic pocket protector worn in the top pocket to prevent pens from soiling the fabric, was nicknamed the
nerd pack. The word
nerd had
supposedly gone out of fashion by the late eighties in favour of dweeb and other synonyms, but
it and its derivatives had by then
already spread to the UK and continued to appear frequently in print, even in US sources, into the early nineties. A British variation on the same theme is nerk, a
stupid or
objectionable person (probably formed by telescoping
nerd and jerk to make a blend); the corresponding adjective is nerkish. To
make the simplest and most effective statement of your
nerdishness, all you need to do is go out and buy a bra. Not the kind associated with women, but the
black , oozy, plastic kind that dimwits put on the front of their cars. The auto bra is at its
nerdish best when used on cars costing less than
10,000. Car & Driver Oct. 1989, p.
3 Cedrico and Angelita...would call them aunt and uncle if they didn't consider such titles nerdy. Alice Walker Temple of My Familiar (1989), p.
395 Most people think of BBSs as crude hacker forums where computer nerds trade tips on how to pirate software or break into the Pentagon's computers. Computer Buyer's Guide 1990, part 3, p.
34 Nerdpacks are for engineers and computer programmers who have earned their status as nerds, or compulsive-obsessive gadget freaks. Michael Johnson Business Buzzwords (1990), p. 97
