Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Nerd |
NerdNoun1. A student who studies excessively. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
| Domain | Definition |
Computing | Nerd n. 1. [mainstream slang] Pejorative applied to anyone with an above-average IQ and few gifts at small talk and ordinary social rituals. 2. [jargon] Term of praise applied (in conscious ironic reference to sense 1) to someone who knows what's really important and interesting and doesn't care to be distracted by trivial chatter and silly status games. Compare geek. The word itself appears to derive from the lines "And then, just to show them, I'll sail to Ka-Troo / And Bring Back an It-Kutch, a Preep and a Proo, / A Nerkle, a Nerd, and a Seersucker, too!" in the Dr. Seuss book "If I Ran the Zoo" (1950). (The spellings `nurd' and `gnurd' also used to be current at MIT, where `nurd' is reported from as far back as 1957.) How it developed its mainstream meaning is unclear, but sense 1 seems to have entered mass culture in the early 1970s (there are reports that in the mid-1960s it meant roughly "annoying misfit" without the connotation of intelligence). An IEEE Spectrum article (4/95, page 16) once derived `nerd' in its variant form `knurd' from the word `drunk' backwards, but this bears all the hallmarks of a bogus folk etymology. Hackers developed sense 2 in self-defense perhaps ten years later, and some actually wear "Nerd Pride" buttons, only half as a joke. At MIT one can find not only buttons but (what else?) pocket protectors bearing the slogan and the MIT seal. Source: Jargon File. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
Nerd has two connotations, neither of which is very flattering.The word was first used in Dr. Seuss's book If I Ran the Zoo, published in 1950. It was adopted in the mid-60s to describe a stereotypical intelligent social recluse, one who usually is the butt of others' jokes.
Today, nerds are often thought of as people who are intelligent, yet socially awkward. The stereotypical nerd image as seen in the media and cartoons is a young man wearing thick black glasses (preferably broken and taped up with electrical tape), pocket protectors and dress shirts or clothes that are in general too formal for the circumstances in which they are worn. Nerds generally express an above-normal interest in computers, technology in general, and academic subjects.
The second has been co-opted by computing jargon. A nerd is a lesser geek. Whereas geeks view themselves as technically competent and socially able, nerds are only technically competent.
There are some regional differences in the use of the words "nerd" and "geek". It appears that on the North American East coast the word "nerd" is preferred to "geek", and the meaning of the words is switched (see Ellen Spertus's page on The Sexiest Geek Alive).
Some self-proclaimed "nerds" use the term to describe any person who is deeply interested in science, technology and/or mathematics.
See also: "Why Nerds are Unpopular"
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Nerd."
| The following table is compiled from various sources, across various languages. When English abbreviations or acronyms come from a non-English source, this is noted. | |||
| Entry | Source | Expression | Field |
NERD | English | National Engineering Research and Development Centre | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |||
Synonyms: NerdSynonyms: grind (n), swot (n), wonk (n). (additional references) |
Crosswords: Nerd |
| Specialty definitions using "nerd": computer nerd ♦ JRN ♦ nerd knob, Nerd pride ♦ turbo nerd ♦ YAUN. (references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | That's what I said: you're a nerd. (Jurassic Park; writing credit: Michael Crichton) Nerd alert (Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery; writing credit: Mike Myers) In real life I could be that anonymous nerd sitting across from you in chem lab, staring at you so hard (Pump Up the Volume; writing credit: Allan Moyle) And every time I try to steer the conversation that way, they make me feel like a nerd. (The Simpsons; writing credit: Artur Brauner; Paul Hengge) A nerd saw me naked (Revenge of the Nerds; writing credit: Jeff Buhai; Tim Metcalfe) | |
Lyrics | Damn, you nerd man, you heard (Feel Me Flow; performing artist: Naughty By Nature) A minute ago, you was a nerd and nobody ever heard of ya (U.N.I.T.Y.; performing artist: Queen Latifah) | |
Movie/TV Titles | My Dad's a Boring Nerd (1997) Killer Nerd (1991) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title |
Books | |
Theater & Movies | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
 |
| "Nerd Mug" by César Ovalle Commentary: "Nerd Mug." |
Source: photographs selected by the editor, with permission from the photographers. |
| "Nerd" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 92.86% of the time. "Nerd" is used about 14 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 92.86% | 13 | 97,576 |
| Noun (proper) | 7.14% | 1 | 339,140 |
| Total | 100.00% | 14 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "nerd": computer nerd ♦ nerd knob ♦ nerd pride ♦ turbo nerd. Additional references. | |
| Hyphenated Usage | |
Beginning with "nerd": nerd-speak. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day | Expression | Frequency per Day |
nerd | 872 | cartoon nerd | 6 |
nerd picture | 47 | boat nerd | 6 |
nerd world | 41 | fuzzy larry nerd | 5 |
lyrics nerd | 35 | band nerd | 5 |
computer nerd | 31 | nerd sexy | 5 |
nerd test | 27 | media nerd world | 5 |
girl nerd | 21 | lapdance lyrics nerd | 5 |
neptune nerd | 18 | nerd star war | 5 |
armor in nerd shining | 18 | nerd rope | 4 |
nerd porn | 17 | clipart nerd | 4 |
nerd sex | 16 | armour in nerd shining | 4 |
nerd pic | 13 | nerd hat | 4 |
nerd out.com | 12 | nerd nude | 4 |
nerd photo | 10 | nerd search | 4 |
nerd t shirt | 9 | nerd reptile | 4 |
nerd quiz | 9 | lyrics nerd rock star | 4 |
nerd rent | 9 | dance lap nerd | 4 |
lapdance nerd | 8 | nerd poster | 4 |
nerd glasses | 8 | nerd sluts | 4 |
joke nerd | 7 | music nerd | 4 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Language | Translations for "nerd"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | budalla (anserine, anserous, asinine, ass, blunderhead, booby, brainless, cabbage-head, chuckle-head, clod, cloddish, clod-poll, cockeyed, daft, dense, Dick, dim witted, dimwit, dumb, dumbbell, fathead, fool, gaby, gaga, goof, goofy, goon, Goosey, gowk, half wit, idiot, idle-headed, imbecile, jobbernowl, jolterhead, josser, juggins, loon, mindless, moke, muff, mutton head, mutton-headed, nincompoop, ninny, ninny-hammer, nitwit, noddy, noodle, numskull, nut, owl, pin head, pumpkin-head, sheep's head, silly, slow witted, softhead, soft-headed, softy, spoony, stupid, tomfool, tom-noddy, witless). (various references) | |
German | schwachkorb. (various references) | |
Hungarian | majom (ape, dandified young man, monkey, nurd, simian), görény (creep, crumb, faggot, Fitchew, foumart, nurd, polecat, stinkard, stinker, yuck), ellenszenves férfi (fag, faggot, nurd). (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 女に不自由 (a guy who never gets the women), 女に不自由 (a guy who never gets the women), オクタン価 (enthusiast, fantasy object for masturbation, geek, honor, love affair with colleague, masturbation, Occam, ocean space explorer, Oceania, octane value, octet, odometer, of course, off, off the record, offence, offense, offer, office, office automation, office computer, office girl, office lady, office wife, officer, official, official handicap, official record, off-season, offshore, offshore center, offshore fund, off-side, Ohio, Oklahoma, okra, OL, onanism, onion, onomatopoeia, onyx, opal, opinion, opinion leader, orchestra, Oscar, oscillograph, oscilloscope, Oslo, osmium, OSPER, ostracism, ostrich, ostrich policy, Othello, Ottawa, Oxford, oxtail, ozone, ozone hole, respectable person). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | おんなにふじゆう (a guy who never gets the women), オタク (enthusiast, geek). (various references) | |
Pig Latin | erdnay.(various references) | |
Russian | умник (egghead, smart aleck, smart alleck, smart ass, smartass, wiseacre). (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | glupan (blockhead, bonehead, boob, booby, clod-poll, coot, dimwit, dope, driveler, driveller, dunce, dunderhead, fathead, fat-head, gander, goof, jerk, loon, lout, lug, lummox, lunkhead, mutton head, nincompoop, ninny, ninny-hammer, nitwit, noddy, pin head, pinhead, pumpkin-head, thickhead, tomfool, twit). (various references) | |
Thai | คนโง่ (apeth, berk, birdbrain, bozo, chucklehead, chump, clod, clodpole, div, doughnut, dove, dummy, dunce, featherbrain, fool, half-wit, ignoramus, loon, muddlehead, mug, muggins, muppet, mut, nincompoop, nit, noddy, oaf, schlepp, silly, simp, simple, simpleton, thicko). (various references) | |
Turkish | inek öğrenci (grind, swot). (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "nerd": nerdier, nerdiest, nerdish, nerds, nerdy. (additional references) | |
Words ending with "nerd": donnerd. (additional references) | |
| |
"Nerd" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: enr, erd, jerd, kerd, Najd, Naqd, Nardo, nardy, narf, narod, narodo, nber, nder, nead, neard, ned, nedn, Neer, neid, neld, neod, ne'r, nerb, nerdl, nerdo, Nere, Nered, nerf, nerg, neri, Nerida, nerk, nerl, nerm, nern, nerp, nerr, ners, nert, neru, nerv, nerw, nery, neud, newd, nfr, nged, nher, nidr, Niord, nird, nirt, noerc, Noord, norad, nord, nre, nsr, nurd, nyr, nzru, zerd. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "nerd" (pronounced ner"d) |
| 2 | -er" d | absurd, bird, blurred, Burd, chauffeured, concurred, conferred, curd, deferred, demurred, deterred, interred, gird, heard, herd, incurred, inferred, misheard, occurred, overheard, preferred, recurred, referred, reword, slurred, spurred, stirred, third, transferred, uncured, undeterred, unheard, word. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
Direct Anagrams: rend. | |
| Words within the letters "d-e-n-r" | |
-1 letter: den, end, ern, red. | |
-2 letters: de, ed, en, er, ne, re. | |
| Words containing the letters "d-e-n-r" | |
+1 letter: denar, diner, drone, ender, nerds, nerdy, nuder, redan, redon, rends, trend, under. | |
+2 letters: ardent, bander, bender, binder, bonder, brined, burden, burned, cedarn, cinder, corned, craned, damner, dancer, dander, danger, danker, darken, darned, darnel, darner, decern, dehorn, denari, denars, denary, denier, denser, dinero, diners, dinger, dinner, downer, drench, driven, droned, droner, drones, dunker, dunner, durned, earned, endear, enders, endrin, endure, enduro, engird, enured, errand, fender, finder, fonder, friend, gander, garden, gender, gerund, girned, harden, hinder, horned, inbred, inured, ironed, kerned, kinder, kirned, lander, lender, mender, minder, modern, nacred, narked, neared, needer, nereid, nerved, nodder, normed, nudger, nurled, nursed, pander, pinder, ponder, pruned, rained, ranged, ranked, ranted, rebind, redans, redden, redeny, redfin, reding, redone, redons, refind, refund, reined, relend, remand, remend, remind, rended, render, rented, repand, resend, rewind, ridden, rident, rinded, ringed, rinsed, rodent, rodmen, rondel, ruined, rundle, sander, sender, snared, snider, snored, sonder, sorned, sunder, tender, tinder, trends, trendy, trined, turned, unbred, undoer, undrew, unread, vender, vendor, verdin, wander, warden, warned, winder, wonder, yarned, yonder, zander. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Slideshow 7. Images: Digital Art 8. Usage Frequency | 9. Expressions 10. Expressions: Internet 11. Translations: Modern 12. Abbreviations | 13. Acronyms 14. Derivations 15. Rhymes 16. Anagrams | 17. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
