nerd English · revision 1380

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * IPA: /nɜːd/ ''(UK)''; /nɝd/ ''(US)''^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ Its origin is uncertain.^(AHD)^(MW Collegiate)^(RHWU) A creature called a ''nerd'' appears in Dr Seuss's ''If I Ran the Zoo'' (1950),^(AHD)^(Etymonline)^(MW Collegiate)^(OED 1989) and the American Heritage Dictionary and Merriam-Webster suggest the word may come from there.^(AHD)^(MW Collegiate) Barnhart and Etymonline instead derive it from 1930s–40s slang ''nert'' “a stupid or crazy person”, an alteration of [[nut]],^(Barnhart 1995)^(Etymonline) and Etymonline thinks the Seuss book may only have helped its rise.^(Etymonline) Random House calls it an obscure expressive formation.^(RHWU)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ An insignificant or contemptible person; a square (1950 in the OED,^(OED 1989) 1951 in Merriam-Webster and Etymonline).^(MW Collegiate)^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ In 1957 a Glasgow newspaper glossed it as “a square”,^(AHD) and it was US student slang in the 1950s and 60s.^(Etymonline)^(Barnhart 1995) In the late 1970s and early 1980s it was used of someone who avoided drugs and parties,^(Etymonline) and from about 1984 it was roughly synonymous with [[geek]].^(Etymonline) The sense of a socially awkward person devoted to intellectual or technical pursuits, as in ''computer nerd'', is now the main one,^(AHD)^(MW Collegiate)^(RHWU) and since the 1980s it has also named a member of a subculture of technology, gaming and science fiction.^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * 1950 – the ''nerd'' in Dr Seuss's ''If I Ran the Zoo''.^(AHD)^(Etymonline)^(OED 1989)

+ * 1951 – a socially inept person.^(MW Collegiate)^(Etymonline)

+ * 1957 – “a square”, in the Glasgow ''Sunday Mail''.^(AHD)

+ * 1978 – ''nerdy''.^(OED 1989)

+ * about 1984 – roughly synonymous with ''geek''.^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Modern meaning==

+ ===Noun===

+ # A person regarded as dull, unattractive or socially inept.^(AHD)^(MW Collegiate)^(RHWU)^(Wiktionary)

+ # A person devoted to intellectual, scientific or technical pursuits, often thought socially awkward, as in ''computer nerd''.^(AHD)^(MW Collegiate)^(RHWU)^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[nerdy]]

+ * [[nerdiness]]

+ * [[nerdish]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[geek]]

+ * [[dweeb]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}