# Etymology of "Nerd" **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 7, 2006, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-nerd/351746 "2006-04-07T17:20:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2006, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-nerd/351746/21 "2006-04-08T03:45:00Z")
[QUOTE=Guinastasia] Wait-I thought it was “putz” that was Yiddish for penis, not “schmuck.” [/QUOTE] Literally, yes. But “putz” was considered more offensive than “shmuck.” And “putz” was not usually used in speech to mean “penis.” per Rosten. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2006, 11:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-nerd/351746/22 "2006-04-08T11:59:41Z")
[The Word Mavens](http://www.randomhouse.com/wotd/index.pperl?date=19960802) say that the most probable explanation is Dr. Suess ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2006, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-nerd/351746/23 "2006-04-08T17:12:58Z")
Seuss’s illustration shows a small creature looking like a “comically angry Chester A. Arthur” which is nothing like the conventional image involving glasses and pocket protectors. Apparently Seuss had no concept at all of the meaning other use for the word, and it was just a funny sounding syllable among many. A propos of this, I was wondering why Toby Radloff in _American Splendor_ pronounces it “neerd.” He goes to the movie _Revenge of the Nerds_ where he must have heard the conventional pronunciation several times over, and still comes out saying “neerd.” ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2006, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-nerd/351746/24 "2006-04-08T17:44:46Z")
[QUOTE=Johanna] Seuss’s illustration shows a small creature looking like a “comically angry Chester A. Arthur” which is nothing like the conventional image involving glasses and pocket protectors. Apparently Seuss had no concept at all of the meaning other use for the word, and it was just a funny sounding syllable among many. [/QUOTE] For reference, here’s a picture of Seuss’s [Nerd](http://www.geek.com/features/name/NERD2.GIF). Compare this to the image of [Mortimer Snerd.](http://www.shannonandrod.com/bergen/M03.gif) ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2006, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-nerd/351746/25 "2006-04-08T18:03:54Z")
Mortimer Snerd reminds me more of Klem Kadiddlehopper. (Does anyone recognize that name?) ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2006, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-nerd/351746/26 "2006-04-08T19:00:39Z")
[QUOTE=Johanna] Mortimer Snerd reminds me more of Klem Kadiddlehopper. (Does anyone recognize that name?) [/QUOTE] Yeah, the Red Skelton character. It’s true that Mortimer, like Klem, was a rube rather than what we think of as a nerd today, but as has been mentioned already, the word has evolved over time. It originally meant, as the citations indicate, “a drip or a square.” Mortimer, though a classic rube, was also a drip. It seems more likely to me that, whatever its derivation, Ted Geisel picked up a word that was already in circulation and used it in the book (as he did many other existing odd-sounding words, such as seersucker, gasket, and gherkin) rather than coining it himself. I think this is more probable than that a word appearing in a children’s book would be picked up as student slang and become widespread enough to be cited by Newsweek in only a year, especially when there seems to be no connection between the illustration and the original slang usage. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2006, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-nerd/351746/27 "2006-04-10T16:35:08Z")
[QUOTE=Colibri] For reference, here’s a picture of Seuss’s [Nerd](http://www.geek.com/features/name/NERD2.GIF). [/QUOTE] “Nerd”? That’s a Grinch! ---
**Author:** ![TheLoadedDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@TheLoadedDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheLoadedDog)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2006, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-nerd/351746/28 "2006-04-10T21:04:23Z")
[QUOTE=Guinastasia] Wait-I thought it was “putz” that was Yiddish for penis, not “schmuck.” [/QUOTE] What about “schmeckl”, or is that a baby term? That’s what my sister’s two year old has been taught to call it (dad’s Jewish). ---
**Author:** ![Helen\_s\_Eidolon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8edcca/32.png) [@Helen\_s\_Eidolon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Helen_s_Eidolon)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2006, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-nerd/351746/29 "2006-04-11T17:50:42Z")
[QUOTE=Guinastasia] Wait-I thought it was “putz” that was Yiddish for penis, not “schmuck.” [/QUOTE] My parents and friends got into a discussion about that. It ended with a call to a mother whose native language is Yiddish, and apparentlythe difference is that one is erect, one is not. I can’t remember which was which. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2006, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-nerd/351746/30 "2006-04-11T23:20:46Z")
[QUOTE=Helen’s Eidolon] My parents and friends got into a discussion about that. It ended with a call to a mother whose native language is Yiddish, and apparentlythe difference is that one is erect, one is not. I can’t remember which was which. [/QUOTE] I’m not exactly sure who has a “native language” that is Yiddish. That explanation seems pretty wrong. It’s more like saying to your mom, “hey, mom, look at the cock on that guy” and “hey, mom, look at that guy’s dingus.” One is just a little more euphemistically polite, at least when talking to women or a mixed group. ---
**Author:** ![ombre3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/da6949/32.png) [@ombre3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ombre3)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2006, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-nerd/351746/31 "2006-04-12T02:37:04Z")
[QUOTE=Spectre of Pithecanthropus] I always thought that the concept of “nerd” should include an extra helping of brain, and from what I remember of Potsie, he was quite average in the brain department, if that. Just to provide local anecdotal data, I recall that I first heard the word nerd when starting college in 1975. I’d never heard it in high school, though I think my years in public school were during a peaceful time and in a peaceful place. There was very little bullying or fighting going on, at all. Maybe once a year two guys would fight and everyone would watch, but I didn’t go to a tough sort of school where people constantly fought. By the same token, there just wasn’t a whole lot of name-calling and put-downs either, so I honestly can’t remember what word was used to describe a nerd. “Dork”, probably. [/QUOTE] “Dork” is what I remember too from high school back in the early 60’s. First I heard a lot about the term “Nerd”------was in the movie—“Revenge of the Nerds”------Much, much later. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2006, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-nerd/351746/32 "2006-04-12T03:20:15Z")
The first time I remember hearing it in the media was circa 1978 on _Saturday Night Live_. (I think this because 1978 was the last year I habitually watched television.) Dan Ackroyd played a talk show host in a skit with his usual parody of a hyperactive announcer, jabbing words like weapons. “Acid Rock. Punk Rock. What next? _Nerd_ Rock!” Then he introduced a new band, The Nerds (including Gilda Radner, as I recall) and their album _Desperately Trying to Be Liked_. After that the term really caught on nationwide. ---
**Author:** ![Helen\_s\_Eidolon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8edcca/32.png) [@Helen\_s\_Eidolon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Helen_s_Eidolon)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2006, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-nerd/351746/33 "2006-04-12T05:01:29Z")
The woman in question is a Jew who grew up in Russia. Her first language is Yiddish. Do you think that no one has Yiddish as a first language? ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2006, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-nerd/351746/34 "2006-04-13T04:28:32Z")
I first remember hearing the word in 1978-1979. There was a poster at Spencer’s Gifts showing a nerd and his various characteristics (looking sorta like Robert Carradine would a few years later). It also looked just like a guy I worked with at the time. Similarly, the first time I remember seeing the word “geek” was in a comic book in the mid-70s. I believe it was called “Spoof,” and it featured the artwork of Sergio Aragones. In one issue, he showed how to draw and populate the drawing with various types of characters, one of which was “geeks.” But, no context, so I couldn’t tell anything. The next time I heard the word was on an episode of the “Facts of Life” TV program. Some (non-main cast) “in-group” girls was criticizing one of the \*main cast who wanted to be a member of the “in” girls. For some reason they had been talking about “geeks,” and looking at this gal, one of them made the comment, “Are there geekettes?” \*Don’t remember which one, but it was a blonde, and not Lisa Whelchel. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Rieux](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@Dr.Rieux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Rieux)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2006, 11:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-nerd/351746/35 "2006-04-13T11:36:47Z")
IIRC, the way Harlan Ellison explained it: Schmuck = Dick Putz = Prick There is a Yiddish word for “condom” (or so I was told) **schmeckeldecker** –literally, “penis cover”. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2006, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-nerd/351746/36 "2006-04-13T14:42:33Z")
Harlan Ellison also gave some stomach turning insight into the word _geek_ in an essay in his book _Stalking the Nightmare_, about when he was a kid and ran away to join the carnival, and was stuck in a jail cell overnight with the geek. Ellison’s definition of geek: a wetbrain, i.e. an alcoholic whose brain has become prunewhip yogurt. His stark conclusion: “I don’t drink. I have never drunk.” When I got _Stalking the Nightmare_ autographed at Mile High Comics in Boulder, they asked him if he wanted a beer. He asked for Perrier with lime. They apparently hadn’t read the book stacked on their table. ---
**Author:** ![sqweels](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f19dbf/32.png) [@sqweels](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sqweels)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2006, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-nerd/351746/37 "2006-04-13T19:03:04Z")
The Mortimer Snerd explanation is somewhat convincing to me, as is “nerts”. But I’ve had a theory for a while that the word comes from “Brainerd”. In the Disney film _The Absent Minded Professor_, Fred MacMurray’s Professor Brainerd character displayed some nerd-like characeristics, namely an obsession with scientific formulas to the exclusion of his social life. Now “brain” is a more obvious and longstanding name for a high-achieving student. Perhaps the was briefly embellished to “Brainerd” and then became understood as “brain nerd”, to be shortened to “nerd” much like “pothead” was sortened to “head”. However, since that movie came out in 1960, it pretty much blows my theory out of the water unless “Brainerd” had come into use years earlier from some other source (and then perhaps was borrowed by the writers of the film). ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2006, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-nerd/351746/38 "2006-04-13T19:23:49Z")
Good grief, all you people who never heard it until the late 70’s or later - didn’t you ever watch _Happy Days_!? “The Fonz” even put [an album out of 50’s rock n’ roll](http://search.ebay.com/fonzie-favorites_W0QQfromZR40) and a couple of tracks of Fonzie expressions you could imitate until you sounded just like the Fonz! One of the expressions was ‘Nerd’ (pronounced ‘noid’). ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2006, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-nerd/351746/39 "2006-04-13T19:50:40Z")
[QUOTE=bup] Good grief, all you people who never heard it until the late 70’s or later - didn’t you ever watch _Happy Days_!? [/QUOTE] Considering that Happy Days was first telecast in 1974, there’s not much difference there. ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2006, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-nerd/351746/40 "2006-04-13T20:04:26Z")
Given that people claim they first heard the word with the movie “Revenge of the Nerds,” or that the word gained national popularity in 1978, I think the difference is significant. It wasn’t just some obscure slang, it was the biggest word for a poindexter within months of “Happy Days” first broadcasting. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-nerd/351746.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-nerd/351746.md?page=3)