Unnumbered source etymology
Original entry ↗A person who is intellectual but generally introverted. · One who has an intense, obsessive interest in something. · A member of a subculture revolving around intellectualism, technology, video games, fantasy and science fiction, comic books and assorted media. · One who is stupid and socially inept or unattractive; a social outcast.
Unknown. Attested since 1951 as US student slang. * Perhaps an alteration of nerts (“nuts", "crazy”); see references below. * The word, capitalized, appeared in 1950 in Dr. Seuss’s If I Ran the Zoo as the name of an imaginary animal: *: And then, just to show them, I’ll sail to Katroo / And bring back an It-Kutch, a Preep and a Proo, / A Nerkle, a Nerd and a Seersucker too! * Possibly a rebracketing of inert as a nert, as in he's inert = he's a nerd, in reference to one's lack of competence or athletic ability. * Various unlikely folk etymologies and less likely backronymic speculations also exist.
Inspect preserved source fields
Raw extraction fields are retained for auditing. Their order does not establish ancestry.
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"word": "nerd",
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"One who has an intense, obsessive interest in something.",
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"One who is stupid and socially inept or unattractive; a social outcast."
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