nerd

nerd
n
a gormless, vacuous, tedious and/or inef-fectual person. Since the later 1970s this has been a vogue term, particularly among adolescents. It was coined in the USA in the late 1960s or early 1970s by members of surfing and hot-rodding cliques to refer to outsiders considered feeble or conformist. The word was then taken up on student campuses and by hippies. (An underground cartoon strip of the early 1970s portrayed nerds as a sub-species of suburban dullards.) The word nerd itself (nurd was an earlier alter-native spelling) is of uncertain origin, but may be influenced by turd.
► 'And the jock shall dwell with the nerd and the cheerleader lie down with the wimp and there will be peace upon the campus.' (Observer, 29 May 1988)
► '"Being a nerd is chic these days", pro-claimed the tediously Teutonic Britta Hoffner from Frankfurt, Germany. "I am a nerd and proud of it".' (Sunday Express, 27 February 1994)

Contemporary slang . 2014.

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Look at other dictionaries:

  • Nerd — [nɜːd] (engl. für Langweiler, Sonderling, Streber, Außenseiter, Fachidiot) ist ein gesellschaftliches Stereotyp, das für besonders in Computer oder andere Bereiche aus Wissenschaft und Technik vertiefte Menschen steht. Manchmal wird auch ein… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • NERD — Pour les articles homonymes, voir Nerd (homonymie). Un nerd (prononcer neurde), dans le domaine des stéréotypes de la culture populaire, est un terme anglais désignant une personne solitaire et intelligente, à la fois socialement handicapée (mais …   Wikipédia en Français

  • NERD — may refer to: NERD NERD, a television production company N.E.R.D, a music group NERD (sabermetrics), a sabermetrics statistic This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an …   Wikipedia

  • nerd — [nə:d US nə:rd] n informal [Date: 1900 2000; Origin: Probably from nerd, name of a strange creature in If I Ran the Zoo (1950) by Dr. Seuss, U.S. children s writer] 1.) someone who seems only interested in computers and other technical things… …   Dictionary of contemporary English

  • nerd — [ nɜrd ] noun count INFORMAL 1. ) someone who is not physically attractive and does not have much social ability 2. ) someone who is very interested in technical or scientific subjects, especially computers. This word usually shows that you think …   Usage of the words and phrases in modern English

  • nerd|y — «NUR dee», adjective, nerd|i|er, nerd|i|est. U.S. Slang. clumsy, foolish, or ineffectual …   Useful english dictionary

  • nerd — [nɜːd ǁ nɜːrd] noun [countable] informal someone who knows a lot about a technical subject, usually computers, but who is not good at communicating with people; = GEEK: • The big market for internet shopping may be not computer nerds but the… …   Financial and business terms

  • nerd — nerd; nerd·ish; …   English syllables

  • nerd — (n.) 1951, U.S. student slang, probably an alteration of 1940s slang nert stupid or crazy person, itself an alteration of NUT (Cf. nut). The word turns up in a Dr. Seuss book from 1950 ( If I Ran the Zoo ), which may have contributed to its rise …   Etymology dictionary

  • nerd — [n] geek dolt, dork*, dweeb*, fool, goober*, goofball*, jerk*, oaf, techie*, trekkie*, weirdo; concepts 564,570 …   New thesaurus

  • Nerd — [nø:ɐ̯t], der; s, s <englisch, »Schwachkopf«> (Jargon abwertend sehr intelligenter, aber sozial isolierter Computerfan) …   Die deutsche Rechtschreibung

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