nerd
Meanings
noun
- A person who is intellectual but generally introverted.
- One who has an intense, obsessive interest in something.
- A member of a subculture revolving around intellectualism, technology, video games, fantasy and science fiction, comic books and assorted media.
- One who is stupid and socially inept or unattractive; a social outcast.
noun
- Initialism of nonerosive reflux disease.
name
- Alternative form of NERDS.
Pronunciation
Word forms
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.
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