nerd

name

1. Alternative form of NERDS.

noun

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.

1. A person who is intellectual but generally introverted.

   “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.”

2. One who has an intense, obsessive interest in something.

   “a computer nerd”

   “a comic-book nerd”

3. A member of a subculture revolving around intellectualism, technology, video games, fantasy and science fiction, comic books and assorted media.
4. One who is stupid and socially inept or unattractive; a social outcast.

   “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.”