Nerd, Geek and Dork

 In Grammar, Vocabulary Words

geek hierarchy

Nerd, geek and dork are really popular English words used today, considered to be words that came out of the Digital Age, but, in fact, the origins of nerd, geek, dork are all from the United States in the last 150 years :

The origins of nerd, geek and dork

The first documented use of the word nerd is in the 1950 Dr. Seuss story, If I Ran the Zoo, in which a boy named Gerald McGrew describes what he would do, if he were in charge of a zoo. Among these was that he would bring a creature known as a Nerd from the land of Ka-Troo. This Nerd was a grumpy man with untidy hair, rather like a mad scientist or, these days, for a nerd.

Geek is someone who is single-minded or accomplished in scientific or technical pursuits but is felt to be socially clumsy – it is student and computer slang, as in computer geek. In fact, geek first appears in 1876 with the meaning “fool,” and it later also came to mean “a performer engaging in bizarre acts like biting the head off a live chicken.”

Experts generally agree that dork— typically defined as “a stupid, foolish, or inept person” — has only been in common usage since the 1960s.

Pick up a copy of a Dr Seuss book in the children’s section of a bookstore or library.  They’re crazy and funny and full of fabulous words, real and imaginary!!!!

What is the word for nerd in your language?

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