I'm glad so much research was done into this. And I used to lament why "dork" didn't make it bigger. Or "goof".

Anyway, above all these, I prefer the Japanese term "otaku".

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GEEK

Etymological Theory 1: Sometime in the early 19th century, the Scottish word geck, meaning "fool," changed to geek and began being used to describe a certain kind of carnival performer. Geeks specialized in eating live animals, including biting the heads off live chickens.

Theory 2: Real etymology geeks trace the word geck all the way back to Shakespeare-see, for instance, "the most notorious geck" in Act V of Twelfth Night-and claim that we have the first great literature geek to blame for the word.

NERD

Theory 1: The first known appearance of the word is in Dr. Seuss's 1950 If I Ran the Zoo, in which a character wants to collect "A Nerkle a Nerd and a Seersucker, too!" The theory goes that kids liked the ring of the word so much, they started using it derogatorily.

Theory 2: Some at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute claim that they coined the word knurd in the '50s to describe kids who studied all the time (knurd being drunk spelled backward).

neither seems desirable, but I think OW-Holmes is on to something.... the denotations of the words have changed among the people to whom they're most often applied. and I'll take that!

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[www.theonion.com]

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I couldn't get the comments to load that day, so I didn't get a chance to add my Very Important Opinion: Dude, It's just a word-- cry me a river, build a bridge, and get the fuck over it!

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ROOOLZ!

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