Pronunciation: \ˈnərd\
Function: noun
Etymology: # perhaps from nerd, a creature in the children’s book If I Ran the Zoo (1950) by Dr. Seuss (Theodor Geisel)
# Date: 1951
: an unstylish, unattractive, or socially inept person; especially : one slavishly devoted to intellectual or academic pursuits
Excerpt from If I Ran the Zoo by Dr. Seuss:
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!
Fauxcabulary Origin: discussed in an email from journalist and author Bruce Frankel, upon submission of the word Neologinerd.
Frankel writes,
James E. Burrows has made an extensive search [of the word nerd].
The problem with pinning the creation of “nerd” on Dr. S. is that the second documented occurence comes only a year later in the Oct. 8, 1951 edition of Newsweek, on page 16, in an article that states: In Detroit, someone who once would be called a drip or a square is now, regrettably, a nerd, or in a less severe case, a scurve.
There is much more on the search, for the origins of nerd. Several alumni of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) have written Mr. Burrows, who is otherwise knows as Brons, that the word comes from KNURD, which is DRUNK spelled backwards, and was created at RPI to make fun of those who weren’t drunk. But the earliest documented usage there is on the 1965 cover of the Homecoming edition of the RPI humor magazine The Bachelor. For much more, visit James E. Burrows‘ site.