Geeks vs Nerds

• On Wikipedia they say a nerd is "Nerd as a stereotypical, archetypal and frequently used informally as a derogatory designation, refers to a person who passionately pursues intellectual or esoteric knowledge or pastimes rather than engaging in social life, such as participating in organized sports or other mainstream social activities. "
  
  
• Webster's Dictionary says, "an unstylish, unattractive, or socially inept person; especially : one slavishly devoted to intellectual or academic pursuits"
  
  
• So in other a geek is someone deeply into school who isn't very social or attractive. I guess it could be offensive to be called a nerd!
  

According to wikipedia :


• The word "nerd" first appeared in Dr. Seuss's book If I Ran the Zoo[1], published in 1950, where it simply names one of Seuss's many comical imaginary animals. (The narrator Gerald McGrew claims that he would collect "a Nerkle, a Nerd, and a Seersucker too" for his imaginary zoo.)
  
  
• The use of the "nerd" as slang goes back at least to 1951, when it was reported as a relatively new usage in Detroit, Michigan first by Newsweek[2] and then the St. Joseph, Michigan, Herald-Press[3]. By the early 1960s, usage of the term spread through the United States[4] and as far as Scotland[5]. Throughout this first decade, the definition was consistent-a dull person, a synonym of "square", "drip" and "scurve". During the next decade, it took on connotations of bookishness as well as social ineptitude, and the spelling "nurd" began to appear. The University of South Dakota's journal, Current Slang, contains four entries for "nurd" and one for "nerd" in 1970 and 1971. [6][7][8]
  
  
• The first recorded use of the "nurd" spelling appeared in 1965, in the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) Bachelor[9]. Oral tradition at RPI holds that the word was coined there, spelled as "knurd" ("drunk" spelled backwards), to describe those who studied rather than partied. This usage predates a similar coinage of "knurd" by author Terry Pratchett, but has not been documented prior to the "nurd" spelling in 1965. A spelling variant "gnurd" was in wide use at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology by 1971 and continued at least until the mid-70's.
  
  
• Other theories of the word's origin include a variation on Mortimer Snerd, the name of Edgar Bergen's ventriloquist dummy and the Northern Electric Research and Development labs in Ontario (an old name for modern-day Nortel), suggesting images of engineers wearing pocket protectors with the acronym N.E.R.D. printed on them, and a claim by Philip K. Dick to having coined "nurd".[10] The Online Etymology Dictionary speculates that the word is an alteration of a 1940s term nert meaning "stupid or crazy person," itself an alteration of nut.[11], but gives no evidence.
  
  
• The term itself was used heavily in the American 1974 - 1984 television comedy Happy Days which was set in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in the mid-1950s, and in one episode, "They Call It Potsie Love", introduced the reverse-spelled "dren" as meaning its opposite.[12] (This has no known or documented relationship

Wikipedia goes on to describe the characteristics of a nerd :

"The stereotypical nerd is intelligent but socially and physically awkward. In film and television depictions, nerds are disproportionately white males with glasses and braces. [13][14] It has been suggested by some, such as linguist Mary Bucholtz, that being a nerd may be a state of being "hyperwhite" and rejecting African-American culture and slang that "cool" white children use.[15] However, after the introduction of the Steve Urkel character, nerds have been seen in all races and colors, especially, in recent years as a recurring young Asian male stereotype. They typically appear either to lack confidence or to be indifferent or oblivious to the negative perceptions held of them by others, with the result that they become frequent objects of scorn, ridicule, bullying, and social isolation. They show a pronounced interest in subjects which others tend to find dull or complex and difficult to comprehend, especially topics related to science, disambiguation, mathematics and technology. Nerds are often portrayed as either obese or incredibly thin. They are also stereotyped to playing RPGs, MMORPGs, Dungeons & Dragons, and other things relating to Fantasy and Science Fiction."

• Merriam-Webster defines a geek as :
  
  
  
  
  1. a carnival performer often billed as a wild man whose act usually includes biting the head off a live chicken or snake.
     
     
  2. a person often of an intellectual bent who is disliked
     
     
  3. an enthusiast or expert especially in a technological field or activity
     
     **I find the first definition a little offensive
     myself : ( **
     
  
  
  
• Answers.com says a geek is :
  
  
  
  
  
  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.
     
  
  
  

According to Answers.com :


• For centuries, a geck or geek was nothing but "a loser, a fool, a simpleton." The word in its various pronunciations was established in the English language as long ago as 1515, attested by the line "He is a foole, a sotte, and a geke also." But in the late twentieth century, Americans made something else of geek.
  
  
• Early in the century, we started to use geek to mean "a performer in a carnival sideshow, a supposed savage or wild man." Researcher David W. Maurer wrote in 1931, "The word is reputed to have originated with a man named Wagner of Charleston, W. Va., whose hideous snake-eating act made him famous."
  
  
• The stage was thus set for the next American evolution of geek as another kind of person, one whose talents were concealed behind an awkward exterior. The exact date is hard to pin down, but in student slang of the 1970s and later, a geek was someone who partied too little and studied too much. And when these geeks migrated to Silicon Valley and began building computers and writing software programs that made them millionaires, they gained respect.
  
  
• In the 1990s, alpha geek was a term of humorous respect for the person in a workplace who knows the most about computers. And the richest man in America was the alpha alpha geek, billionaire Bill Gates of Microsoft.
  

At urbandictionary.com geeks and nerds give their own definitions of what they think the definitions are :


• The people you pick on in high school and wind up working for as an adult
  
  The geeky kid now owns a million dollar software company
  
  by longislandguy duh May 25, 2005
  
  
• Not to be confused with Nerd. A geek does not have to be smart, a Geek is someone who is generaly not athletic, and enjoys Video Games; Comic Books; being on the internet, and etc.
  
  Only a geek would waste their time on the internet, defining geek on urbandictionary.com
  
  by Sknywhtboy88 Nov 5, 2004
  
  
• One of four titles used to classify someone based on their technical and social skills. The other three titles are nerd, dork, and normie. The difference between the four titles can be easily shown in table form:
  
  ................ Technical ...... Social
  Title ............ Skills ......... Skills
  ---------- ---------------- ------------
  Normie ......... No ............. Yes
  Geek ........... Yes ............. Yes
  Nerd ............ Yes ............. No
  Dork ............ No .............. No
  
  Normie: A normal person. Blah.
  
  Geek: An outwardly normal person who has taken the time to learn technical skills. Geeks have as normal a social life as anyone, and usually the only way to tell if someone is a geek is if they inform you of their skills.
  
  Nerd: A socially awkward person who has learned technical skills due to the spare time they enjoy from being generally neglected. Their technical knowledge then leads normies to neglect them even further, leading to more development of their technical skills, more neglection, etc. This vicious cycle drives them even more into social oblivion.
  
  Dork: A person who, although also socially awkward, doesn't have the intelligence to fill the void with technical pursuits, like a nerd, and is forced to do mindless activities. Almost always alone. Usually with an XBox. Like playing Halo. All day. Every day. Not even understanding how the Xbox is making the pretty pictures on the screen. Very sad.
  
  If you met me at a party, you would have no idea that I enjoy finite element analysis-based inviscid flow modelling using computational fluid dynamics. That's because I'm a geek.