Geeking Out

What is a nerd anyway? If two senior citizens were sitting on a park bench playing checkers, I doubt anyone would call them nerds. Replace said seniors with twenty something males and for added effect change checkers to Stratego and you have yourself some nerds.

The word nerd, undefined but illustrated, first appeared in 1950 in Dr. Seuss's If I Ran the Zoo: “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!”

This guy is a nerd, but this guy only looks like one (despite the fact that he plays the clarinet)

According to Dictionary.com geeks and nerds have much in common:

nerd also nurd ( P ) Pronunciation Key (nûrd)
n. Slang

1. A foolish, inept, or unattractive person.
2. A person who is single-minded or accomplished in scientific or technical pursuits but is felt to be socially inept.

geek ( P ) Pronunciation Key (gk)
n. Slang

1. 1. A person regarded as foolish, inept, or clumsy.
   2. A person who is single-minded or accomplished in scientific or technical pursuits but is felt to be socially inept.
2. A carnival performer whose show consists of bizarre acts, such as biting the head off a live chicken.

So nerds are less attractive but better coordinated than geeks, but both can be scientists or fools, and both are definitely socially retarded.


People who dress up like star wars/trek characters and go to conventions and whatnot are definitely nerds.

Big sci fi fans, even those one who don't feel compelled to dress up as Chewbacca, do have a bizzare tendancy to watch a film over and over again. I know a few nerds who have seen every Star Wars and every Star Trek film in excess of twenty times. Apocraphyl accounts of similar behaviour abound, so I can only assume that this is a pretty standard. Do nerds enjoy their films more than most people? Does sci fi lend itself to endlessly repeating screenings by its hardcore viewership? The top rated movie on IMDB is The Godfather. When is the next convention and where can one get a tommy gun and a prop garrot?