nerd
Part of speech: noun
Morphological type: simple
Etymology: Unknown. Attested since 1951 as US student slang.
* Perhaps an alteration of nerts (“nuts", "crazy”); see references below.
* The word, capitalized, appeared in 1950 in Dr. Seuss’s If I Ran the Zoo as the name of an imaginary animal:
*: And then, just to show them, I’ll sail to Katroo / And bring back an It-Kutch, a Preep and a Proo, / A Nerkle, a Nerd and a Seersucker too!
* Possibly a rebracketing of inert as a nert, as in he's inert = he's a nerd, in reference to one's lack of competence or athletic ability.
* Various unlikely folk etymologies and less likely backronymic speculations also exist.
Inflected forms:
form: nerds
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: knurd
pos: noun
tags: alternative
form: nurd
pos: noun
tags: alternative
rare
Senses:
gloss: A person who is intellectual but generally introverted.
pos: noun
tags: derogatory
slang
sometimes
examples: The bullies used to call him a nerd at school.
1953 Advertisement for "Businessman's Lunch", a play by Michael Quinn, in Patricia Brown, Gloria Mundi
They particularly enjoy making fun of one of their fellows who is not present, whom they consider a hopeless nerd – until, that is, they learn he is engaged to marry the boss's daughter.
I once found myself listening to a gay man who was saying wistfully, "I wish there was someplace you could go, maybe a club, where only masculine men would be allowed in." […] Ever tactful, I did not point out to him that if such a place existed, he probably would not be allowed into it, for while he wasn't a campy sort he was too much of a nerd to meet his own specification.
"We were all geeks and nerds, but he was unusually poorly adjusted," recalls Chess, now a mathematics professor at Hunter College.
"Yes, I am super nerd, and the whole room cracked up," Said Orszag.
gloss: One who has an intense, obsessive interest in something.
pos: noun
tags: derogatory
informal
sometimes
examples: a computer nerd
a comic-book nerd
gloss: A member of a subculture revolving around intellectualism, technology, video games, fantasy and science fiction, comic books and assorted media.
pos: noun
tags: derogatory
informal
sometimes
gloss: One who is stupid and socially inept or unattractive; a social outcast.
pos: noun
tags: dated
derogatory
informal
sometimes
examples: ALICE: Prithee , what might a nerd be ?
GLORIA: A nerd is an idiot or other person absurd.
To much of the world, we in America are nerds. We don't understand the world we live in.
"You're a nerd, Jake, a nerd. You're stupid. You're clumsy. You're dirt, Jake. You're nothing."
Nerds of the Old West
Derived words: arachnerd
blerd
cybernerd
enginerd
entreprenerd
feminerd
internerd
millionerd
neek
nerdboy
nerdbrain
nerd chic
nerdcore
nerderati
nerdery
nerdette
nerdface
nerdfest
Nerdfighter
nerdgasm
nerd glasses
nerdhood
Nerdic
nerdification
nerdify
nerdiness
nerdish
nerdism
nerdistan
nerditude
nerdity test
nerdlet
nerdlike
nerdling
nerdlinger
nerdly
nerdo
nerdom
nerddom
nerd out
nerd pole
nerd revolution
nerd-snipe
nerd snipe
nerdsome
nerdspeak
nerdtastic
nerdvana
nerdwear
nerdy
nerk
seminerd
supernerd
technonerd
ubernerd
über-nerd
übernerd
word nerd
Translations: