Nerd
Pronunciation
- RP enPR: nûd, IPA: /nÉœËd/
- US enPR: nûrd, IPA: /nÉËd/
- Rhymes: -ÉœË(r)d
Alternative forms
- nurd very rare
Origin
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! - Various unlikely folk etymologies and less likely backronymic speculations also exist.
These are all discredited. See also http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/N/nerd.html
Possibly from Mortimer Snerd, the name of Edgar Bergen’s ventriloquist dummy.
Possibly from the acronym N.E.R.D. on the pocket protectors of employees of the company Northern Electric Research and Developments; it should be noted, however, that speculative etymologies based on acronyms are almost always false (such as “port out, starboard home†for “posh†and “to insure promptness†for “tipâ€) and are known as backronym.
Possibly a pronunciation of the word “drunk†spelled in reverse (“knurdâ€), used to mean a person who does not drink at parties; however, this seems contrived.
Full definition of nerd
Noun
nerd
(plural nerds)- (slang, sometimes derogatory) A person who is intellectual but generally introverted
- 1953 Advertisement for "Businessman's Lunch", a play by Micheal Quinn, in Patricia Brown, Gloria MundiThey 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.
- 2002, Sam Williams, S:Free_as_in_Freedom/Chapter_3, "We were all geeks and nerds, but he was unusually poorly adjusted," recalls Chess, now a mathematics professor at Hunter College.
- 2009, Feb 28, Orszag to present budget blueprint, "Yes, I am super nerd, and the whole room cracked up," Said Orszag.
- (informal, sometimes derogatory) One who has an intense, obsessive interest in something.a computer nerda comic-book nerd
- (slang, always derogatory) An unattractive, socially awkward, annoying, undesirable, and/or boring, person; a dork.Only a nerd would wear yellow and blue stripes with green pantsNerds seem to have fun with each other, but in a way that causes others to laugh AT them.Why are you hanging out with that nerd?