Etymologically
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nerd

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /nɜːd/ (UK); /nɝd/ (US)[1]

Etymology

Its origin is uncertain.[2][3][4] A creature called a nerd appears in Dr Seuss's If I Ran the Zoo (1950),[2][5][3][6] and the American Heritage Dictionary and Merriam-Webster suggest the word may come from there.[2][3] Barnhart and Etymonline instead derive it from 1930s–40s slang nert “a stupid or crazy person”, an alteration of nut,[7][5] and Etymonline thinks the Seuss book may only have helped its rise.[5] Random House calls it an obscure expressive formation.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

An insignificant or contemptible person; a square (1950 in the OED,[6] 1951 in Merriam-Webster and Etymonline).[3][5]

Semantic evolution

In 1957 a Glasgow newspaper glossed it as “a square”,[2] and it was US student slang in the 1950s and 60s.[5][7] In the late 1970s and early 1980s it was used of someone who avoided drugs and parties,[5] and from about 1984 it was roughly synonymous with geek.[5] The sense of a socially awkward person devoted to intellectual or technical pursuits, as in computer nerd, is now the main one,[2][3][4] and since the 1980s it has also named a member of a subculture of technology, gaming and science fiction.[1]

Timeline

  • 1950 – the nerd in Dr Seuss's If I Ran the Zoo.[2][5][6]
  • 1951 – a socially inept person.[3][5]
  • 1957 – “a square”, in the Glasgow Sunday Mail.[2]
  • 1978 – nerdy.[6]
  • about 1984 – roughly synonymous with geek.[5]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. A person regarded as dull, unattractive or socially inept.
  2. A person devoted to intellectual, scientific or technical pursuits, often thought socially awkward, as in computer nerd.

Word family

  • nerdy
  • nerdiness
  • nerdish
  • geek
  • dweeb

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
  3. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  4. ^ a b c Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas, Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  6. ^ a b c d Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins