JargonFile/entries/nerd.txt

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 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; however, knurd appears to
have a separate etymology.) 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. 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.