# Word Origin: "Nerd"

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-origin-nerd/46354>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [December 19, 2000, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-origin-nerd/46354 "2000-12-19T15:35:58Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**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, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-origin-nerd/46354/1 "2000-12-19T15:35:58Z")

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The first time I ever heard the word “nerd” was on the old 70’s TV show **Happy Days**. In fact, for a while, that was the big catch word on the show. Anyone who was uncool (usually Potsie) was called a “nerd”. Also, some graffiti using the word “nerd” was shown as during the show’s credits for a while.

Since I never heard the word before that, I’m wondering if it was invented by the show’s writers. Does anyone know?

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**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, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-origin-nerd/46354/2 "2000-12-19T16:03:32Z")

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According to the OED:

> [@](#):
>
> Of uncertain origin: sometimes taken as a euphemistic alteration of turd (see, for example, D. L. Gold in Comments in Etymol. (1983) XII. 27), though perh. simply derived from the children’s book character cited in quot. 1950.

The quotation from 1950 that they are referring to is from Dr. Seuss’s book _If I Ran the Zoo_.

> [@](#):
>
> 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!

Their first citation for _nerd_ meaning “square” is from 1957. This if from the Glasgow _Sunday Mail_ in what appears to be a definition of nerd as a slang term, so it was a 1950s word.

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**Author:** ![Alphagene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Alphagene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alphagene)\
**Post date:** [December 19, 2000, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-origin-nerd/46354/3 "2000-12-19T16:24:02Z")

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The nerd-“Happy Days” connection was also recently discussed [here](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=43708).

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**Author:** ![handy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)\
**Post date:** [December 20, 2000, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-origin-nerd/46354/4 "2000-12-20T00:00:29Z")

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OEd is weird, this is better:  
nerd "nerd\ noun [perh. fr. nerd, a creature in the children’s book If I Ran the Zoo (1950) by Dr. Seuss (Theodor Geisel)] (1951)  
: an unstylish, unattractive, or socially inept person; esp : one slavishly devoted to intellectual or academic pursuits \<computer nerds\>  
nerd•ish "ner-dish\ adjective  
nerdy -de\ adjective

©1996 Zane Publishing, Inc. and Merriam-Webster, Incorporated. All rights reserved.

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**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\
**Post date:** [December 20, 2000, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-origin-nerd/46354/5 "2000-12-20T04:13:59Z")

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I’ve always assumed that it was popularized by the recurring sketch on certain early _Saturday Night Live_ shows in which various actors, particularly Bill Murray and Gilda Radner, played nerdish characters who were called “nerds.”