# Nerd Nerd Nerd, Nerd is the word. **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 26, 2000, 8:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nerd-nerd-nerd-nerd-is-the-word/38390 "2000-10-26T08:19:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![pricciar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f4b2a3/32.png) [@pricciar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pricciar)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2000, 8:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nerd-nerd-nerd-nerd-is-the-word/38390/1 "2000-10-26T08:19:46Z")
I know how exciting these word origin threads are, but I just need to ask this. After reading the Happy Days question in another thread, I decided to do a search and find the answer to the question. In my delay, others beat me to the answer, but my searching around found an interesting factoid, whose veracity I was unsure of. Here it is from a [Happy Days web site](http://www.sitcomsonline.com/diduknow.html). > [@](#): > > The word “nerd” wasn’t used as it is has come to mean today until the mid-1970s by the writers of Happy Days as an epithet to be used by Arthur “Fonzie” Fonzarelli. Dr. Seuss > actually invented the word “nerd” in the book “If I Ran the Zoo” (1950), but the word got it’s current meaning from Happy Days. Now, since I wasn’t around back then, I have no idea. A cursory web search gave me too much information to sort through, I was hoping someone had already read up on it. (Jeeze, I didn’t realize there was about 100 versions of something called a “Nerdity Test”) Anyone read any secondary information to back this claim up? Or refute it? pat ---
**Author:** ![JonF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/cab0a1/32.png) [@JonF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JonF)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2000, 10:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nerd-nerd-nerd-nerd-is-the-word/38390/2 "2000-10-26T10:40:29Z")
I can refute it … nerd was used with its present meaning at MIT in 1966. I was there. We usually spelled it “gnurd”. jrf ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2000, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nerd-nerd-nerd-nerd-is-the-word/38390/3 "2000-10-26T12:27:59Z")
Dr. Seuss did appear to coin the word “nerd” in “If I Ran the Zoo.” It was the name for one of his fanciful creatures. ---
**Author:** ![TampaFlyer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/71e660/32.png) [@TampaFlyer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TampaFlyer)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2000, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nerd-nerd-nerd-nerd-is-the-word/38390/4 "2000-10-26T20:04:10Z")
\> We usually spelled it “gnurd”. Really? Pronounced the same? Why the odd spelling? ---
**Author:** ![monkeylucifer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f05b48/32.png) [@monkeylucifer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monkeylucifer)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2000, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nerd-nerd-nerd-nerd-is-the-word/38390/5 "2000-10-26T22:13:30Z")
Here you go…from a a most reliable source (straight from the horse’s mouth, so to speak 😃 ) [Nerd](http://www.eps.mcgill.ca/jargon/html/entry/nerd.html) ---
**Author:** ![JonF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/cab0a1/32.png) [@JonF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JonF)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2000, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nerd-nerd-nerd-nerd-is-the-word/38390/6 "2000-10-26T23:21:18Z")
> [@](#): > > Why the odd spelling? It’s one of those things that amuses gnurds. ---
**Author:** ![JonF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/cab0a1/32.png) [@JonF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JonF)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2000, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nerd-nerd-nerd-nerd-is-the-word/38390/7 "2000-10-26T23:29:15Z")
Sometimes the g was pronounced, sometimes not. ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2000, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nerd-nerd-nerd-nerd-is-the-word/38390/8 "2000-10-27T01:25:03Z")
For those not old enuff or not alive I NEVER once heard ANYONE use NERD as a word. After Happy Days it came into being. Same as Dweeb, Geek and Dork(Which was a dirty word you didn’t say) These were NOT used to describe people in the 70s. Especially in the early 70s most of the words were ethnic. If you did something dumb it was “What a Polock thing to do” If you we cheap “See if you can Jew him down” Fag was used a lot but it wasn’t as mean as it is today. BTW if you were Polish you substitiuted Diego (an Italian or Greek or Spaniard) for dumb. If you were Jewish you substituted Scot if you were cheap. We used to use Mick though I never quite got that one. (Irish) Apologies to anyone offended. Unfortunatly we did use those back then. ---
**Author:** ![TheNerd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/858c86/32.png) [@TheNerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheNerd)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2000, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nerd-nerd-nerd-nerd-is-the-word/38390/9 "2000-10-27T02:23:33Z")
No idea. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![occ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8c91f0/32.png) [@occ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/occ)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2000, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nerd-nerd-nerd-nerd-is-the-word/38390/10 "2000-12-19T17:08:40Z")
I was given the impression that it was in use from the mid-to-late 50’s, although much of my impressions are from things like tv, which are shown after-the-fact. Its possible that it was largely popularized by Happy Days. Others have confirmed its usage in the 50’s and 60’s. ---
**Author:** ![sqweels](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f19dbf/32.png) [@sqweels](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sqweels)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2000, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nerd-nerd-nerd-nerd-is-the-word/38390/11 "2000-12-19T19:26:30Z")
FWIW I’ll share my theory on the origins of “nerd”: The 1960 Disney movie _The Absent Minded Professer_ starred Fred McMurray as “Professer Brainerd” (discoverer of “flubber”) who was obsessed with scientific formulas to the exclusion of his social life. Now a more obvious term for an overachieving student was “brain”, so perhaps for a time after the movie came out kids were being called “Brainerd”. This would have later been shortened to “nerd”, and maybe some of the kids thought the term was “brain nerd”, an adjective modifying a noun. Perhaps the true origin is with Dr. Suess, but there doesn’t seem to be a connection with the qualities of “nerdiness” and it’s spelled differently, so it may be a coincidence. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2000, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nerd-nerd-nerd-nerd-is-the-word/38390/12 "2000-12-19T19:59:27Z")
I’m wit **Markxxx**. I don’t believe the word was commonly used before **Happy Days** popularized (invented?) it. Happy Days was the first place I ever heard it. ---
**Author:** ![JeffB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jeffb/32/188_2.png) [@JeffB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JeffB)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2000, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nerd-nerd-nerd-nerd-is-the-word/38390/13 "2000-12-19T20:23:00Z")
I don’t know how popular **nerd** was prior to _Happy Days_, but it was in use. The OED gives this as it’s first cite (after Dr. Seuss): > [@](#): > > 1957 Sunday Mail (Glasgow) 10 Feb. 11 Nerd - a square It appears that the newpaper was defining slang terms, and nerd was one of them. Maybe nerd was first popularized in Scotland or the U.K. before making it’s way over the pond. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2000, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nerd-nerd-nerd-nerd-is-the-word/38390/14 "2000-12-19T20:46:03Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by JonF \* > **I can refute it … nerd was used with its present meaning at MIT in 1966. I was there. We usually spelled it “gnurd”.** By 1976, when I started there, the accepted spelling had changed to “nerd”, with the former “gnurd” spelling still sometimes used but thought archaic. It is not intuitively obvious why there was a change, except for possible ease of pronunciation, but the time frame is bracketed. Actually, “tool” was a far more common term, with “nerd” being reserved for extreme cases of toolness. There is also no apparent connection with the Dr. Seuss fantasy animal, which is just one of many in the book, and has no apparent nerdiness to it, just birdiness. If that constitutes the first citation, I’m sure it wasn’t the seminal one. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2000, 9:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nerd-nerd-nerd-nerd-is-the-word/38390/15 "2000-12-20T09:00:35Z")
I should add that, in 1976, “nurd” was also a common spelling, but was becoming obsolescent even then. That’s clearly a transition from “gnurd” to “nerd”. The adjectival form was “nerdly.”