21 lines
3.1 KiB
HTML
21 lines
3.1 KiB
HTML
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1" standalone="no"?>
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<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><title>nerd</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="../../jargon.css" type="text/css"/><meta name="generator" content="DocBook XSL Stylesheets V1.61.0"/><link rel="home" href="../index.html" title="The Jargon File"/><link rel="up" href="../N.html" title="N"/><link rel="previous" href="neophilia.html" title="neophilia"/><link rel="next" href="nerd-knob.html" title="nerd knob"/></head><body><div class="navheader"><table width="100%" summary="Navigation header"><tr><th colspan="3" align="center">nerd</th></tr><tr><td width="20%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="neophilia.html">Prev</a> </td><th width="60%" align="center">N</th><td width="20%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="nerd-knob.html">Next</a></td></tr></table><hr/></div><dt><a id="nerd"/><dt xmlns="" id="nerd"><b>nerd</b>: <span xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" class="grammar">n.</span></dt></dt><dd><p> 1. [mainstream slang] Pejorative applied to anyone with an
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above-average IQ and few gifts at small talk and ordinary social rituals.
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</p></dd><dd><p> 2. [jargon] Term of praise applied (in conscious ironic reference to
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sense 1) to someone who knows what's really important and interesting and
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doesn't care to be distracted by trivial chatter and silly status games.
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Compare <a href="../G/geek.html"><i class="glossterm">geek</i></a>.</p></dd><dd><p>The word itself appears to derive from the lines “<span class="quote">And then,
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just to show them, I'll sail to Ka-Troo / And Bring Back an It-Kutch, a
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Preep and a Proo, / A Nerkle, a Nerd, and a Seersucker, too!</span>” in the
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Dr. Seuss book <i class="citetitle">If I Ran the Zoo</i> (1950). (The
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spellings ‘nurd’ and ‘gnurd’ also used to be
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current at MIT, where ‘nurd’ is reported from as far back as
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1957; however, <a href="../K/knurd.html"><i class="glossterm">knurd</i></a> appears to have a separate
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etymology.) How it developed its mainstream meaning is unclear, but sense 1
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seems to have entered mass culture in the early 1970s (there are reports
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that in the mid-1960s it meant roughly “<span class="quote">annoying misfit</span>”
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without the connotation of intelligence.</p><p>Hackers developed sense 2 in self-defense perhaps ten years later,
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and some actually wear “<span class="quote">Nerd Pride</span>” buttons, only half as a
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joke. At MIT one can find not only buttons but (what else?) pocket
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protectors bearing the slogan and the MIT seal.</p></dd><div class="navfooter"><hr/><table width="100%" summary="Navigation footer"><tr><td width="40%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="neophilia.html">Prev</a> </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="u" href="../N.html">Up</a></td><td width="40%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="nerd-knob.html">Next</a></td></tr><tr><td width="40%" align="left" valign="top">neophilia </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="h" href="../index.html">Home</a></td><td width="40%" align="right" valign="top"> nerd knob</td></tr></table></div></body></html>
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