Wednesday, 1 August 2007

A Nerd, Nurd, Geek or Dork?


I read this story with Mr Coffee just the other day, about the guy who was called a Nerd online and he drove from Virginia to Texas and almost killed him. The victim lived near Waco, and seemed to attract guys of the Whacko type.

N.E.R.D. - darn those four letter words.

That led to a debate with Mr Coffee and his sister - what was the biggest, most insulting 4 letter word - GEEK, DORK or NERD? The words flew fast around the room and I thought I might just get killed.

Mr C's sister actually thought Nerd sounded not too bad and couldn't see what the whacko from Virginia was on about; Mr Coffee didn't think Geek was quite as insulting as Nerd. But what did they mean?

"Dork means socially clumsy and pretty dumb around people," I pronounced, hoping no one was reading my eyes and thinking about how I was seeing my ninth grade years flash before me - and that awful outfit I wore for three years religiously in Uni ... and my ...

"And geek is kind of like being a specialist in one very narrow area of knowledge, but not having a rounded knowledge," explained Mr Coffee. "That's not too bad. I like that."

"But what does "Nerd" mean?"

"Suspenders," said Mr Coffee.

"And socks with sandals," I added.

So what did the Macquarie Dictionary say?

Dork revealed social clumsiness and ineptness.

But Nerdiness? "Also can be spelt "Nurd". That's strange, I'd never seen that. "Means: an idiot, fool." Nothing about suspender or socks with sandals.

And Geek? Nothing about specialised knowledge there: "An idiot fool, someone who holds themselves up to ridicule and indulges in such activities as biting the heads off chickens," Mr C's sister read out. "You like that?"

Nerd, Nurd, Geek, Dork - what's your favourite 4 letter word?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Actually, I said “pocket protectors and sock suspenders” are what the word ‘nerd’ evokes in my mind. Suspenders (either as in lingerie or the type that holds up one's trousers) are not that nerdy.

Oh, and I'm not that much into biting heads off chooks, but biting heads off prawns and similar crustaceans are quite OK by me!

Maria said...

I cannot have a conversation on any topic, not even on the blog, without it coming back to something sexual for Mr Coffee. Like lingerie.

I met a guy in a pub who told me there was not a single thing in the world which did not have phallic meaning - you just had to search for it. I think this was his life's quest. Indeed he did search for it and explained the phallic meaning of every item in the pub that I could challenge him on (exhausting and somewhat questionable conversation).

I am beginning to believe him!