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distracted by trivial chatter and silly status games. Compare the two senses of computer geek. |
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The word itself appears to derive from the lines "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!" in the Dr. Seuss book If I Ran the Zoo (1950). (The spellings 'nurd' and 'gnurd' also used to be current at MIT.) How it developed its mainstream meaning is unclear, but sense 1 seems to have entered mass culture in the early 1970s (there are reports that in the mid-1960s it meant roughly "annoying misfit" without the connotation of intelligence see Guy Steele's introduction to this book). |
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An IEEE Spectrum article (4/95, page 16) once derived 'nerd' in its variant form 'knurd' from the word 'drunk' backwards, but this bears all the earmarks of a bogus folk etymology. |
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Hackers developed sense 2 in self-defense perhaps ten years later, and some actually wear "Nerd Pride" buttons, only half as a joke. At MIT one can find not only buttons but (what else?) pocket protectors bearing the slogan and the MIT seal. |
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net.- /net dot/ pref. [Usenet] Prefix used to describe people and events related to Usenet. From the time before the Great Renaming, when most non-local newsgroups had names beginning 'net.'. Includes net.gods, net.goddesses (various charismatic net.women with circles of on-line admirers), net.lurkers (see lurker), net.person, net.parties (a synonym for boink, sense 2), and many similar constructs. See also net.police. |
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net.god /net god/ n. Accolade referring to anyone who satisfies some combination of the following conditions: has been visible on Usenet for more than 5 years, ran one of the original backbone sites, moderated an important newsgroup, wrote news software, or knows Gene, Mark, Rick, Mel, Henry, Chuq, and Greg personally. See demigod. Net.goddesses such as Rissa or the Slime Sisters have (so far) been distinguished more by personality than by authority. |
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net.personality /net per'sn-al'-i-tee/ n. Someone who has made a name for him or herself on Usenet, through either longevity or attention-getting posts, but doesn't meet the other requirements of net.godhood. |
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net.police /net-p -lees'/ n. (var. net.cops) Those Usenet readers who feel it is their responsibility to pounce on and flame any posting which they regard as offensive or in violation of their understanding of netiquette. Generally |
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