Thursday, July 28, 2022

The Differences Between “Nerds,” “Geeks,” And “Dorks”?

 

What Are The Differences Between “Nerds,” “Geeks,” And “Dorks”?

These two words have a lot more in common than you might think, from their original meanings to the way they've changed over time.


Geek

Geek is found as early as the 1870s, originally mocking of “a foolish or worthless person.” It might be a variant of geck, a word for “fool, simpleton, or dupe” recorded in the 1500s. This geck, in turn, could come from a Germanic root meaning “to croak.” GeekGeckCroak. We can sort of hear it; can you?

In the early 1900s, a geek was a circus performer who horrified audiences with freaky things like biting off the heads of live animals, like chickens and snakes. William Lindsay Gresham’s novel Nightmare Alley (1946), about the darker side of showbiz, may have helped popularized the term.

Considering the bizarre acts performed by circus geeks, it may be no surprise that the word geek eventually came to describe general “oddballs” and “eccentrics.” How geek became “smart” is debated, but by the 1950s and 1960s, a geek was a “unlikable brainiac.” Not for long!

With the computer and tech revolution, geek boomed in popularity with its friend nerdUnlike nerd, though, the word geek rooted itself more squarely with technology-related fields (once it quit biting off animal heads). Thus, because technology is so important in the Digital Age, so are geeks! 


These names used to be roughly interchangeable when distinguishing the social outcasts from the in-crowd in school. Yet, those so-called social rejects were destined to rule the world in the form of Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, et al. “The geek shall inherit the earth,” indeed. Oh yeah, and billions of dollars. 

There’s a lot of overlap in the meanings of nerdgeek, and dork. Yet, some of these terms have grown up a little more than others, and even wriggled away from their initial negative connotations.

Today, being a geek or a nerd no longer implies that you’ll receive a horrible wedgie and get thrown in a locker. Based on popular usage of these terms, geeks and nerds are a new brand of cool kid.

We wanted to explore what sets these terms apart and, as the Word Nerds that we are, we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to highlight their truly bizarre biographies. Bonus: they generally have absolutely nothing to do with book-smarts and glasses. Biting heads off chickens. Dr. Seuss. Dwarfs. Penises. It’s all in there.

What are the differences?

First and foremost: Remember, as with all words (including conventional slurs like b*tch), these terms can be used in jest or in anger, to praise or disparage. Calling someone a nerd can be a compliment or a dis, depending on the person and context. So, be mindful!

Alright, what sets these terms apart? Let’s start with the definitions:

Dork: “a silly, out-of-touch person who tends to look odd or behave ridiculously around others”

Nerd“socially awkward” and “an intelligent but single-minded person obsessed with a nonsocial hobby or pursuit”

Geek: “a digital-technology expert or enthusiast” and “a person who has excessive enthusiasm for and some expertise about a specialized subject or activity”

There’s one more term we can add to this geeky list: dweeb. Dweeb is “wimp; a stupid or uninteresting person.”

It seems as though intelligence and social skills play a big part in a lot of these definitions, but why?

Where did these words come from?

So, what was that about penises and Dr. Seuss? Oh yeah, the bizarre origin stories we were talking about.

Dweeb

This word is the youngest of the four, found in the 1960s. Dweeb’s associations with unintelligence stem from the possibility that the word is a fusion of dwarf and feeb (short for “feeble-minded person”).

This isn’t to say that dwarves are unintelligent! What may be an explanation for dweeb’s existence is that ‘60s college kids riffed on the physically short stature of dwarves and the short brain span of “feeble-mindedness” and came up with dweeb to describe a dimwit.

In an odd 2012 book called The Lizzard of Ozz, an author named Dr. Rufus T. Dingleberry confirms dweeb’s “dimwitted” character, which he claims is a result of the dweeb’s parents’ obsession with certain mind-altering substances. 

Dork

So, back in the 1960s, dork meant “penis.” (Must’ve been something in the air in the ’60s …) One of the earliest instances comes from the 1961 novel Valhalla by Jere Peacock, where dork had a fancy-seeming spelling: “You satisfy many women with that dorque?”

This spelling of dorque suggests a connection to Dorque, a 1940s slang nickname for a solider. Other origin theories of dork are that it’s an alteration of d*ck, which would make sense for dork’s initial, phallic meaning. Dork also may be related to dirk, a slang term for “penis” dating all the way back to the late 1700s.

Dork went on to mean people who do silly, ridiculous things. It’s pretty common in slang to liken a foolish person to a taboo body part. Butthead, anyone?

Nerd

Nerd’s origins are really hazy. (Could the 1960s have anything to do with that?) The most frequently cited story is that Dr. Seuss coined the word, as the name of a bizarre-looking creature, in his 1950 children’s book If I Ran the Zoo. Suess also introduced nerd’s friends, “preep,” “proo,” and “nerkle” in the same book.

A year later, Newsweek reported on nerd’s popularity with slang-slinging youth of the day: “… someone who once would be called a drip or a square is now, regrettably, a nerd.”

The problem with the Seuss origin theory is that it’s very unlikely teens (who probably weren’t reading Seuss) picked up the word and used it so much that it became a national story—in only a year. And, why use nerd and not “nerkle”? Nerd had to have been around before Seuss, but the doc certainly made it more popular.

Etymologists think nerd has a combination of influences, in addition to Dr. Seuss (and possibly informing his own use). These include a long-running joke of spelling drunk backwards (“knurd”), implying that studious people don’t drink or party; a 1930s slang term for nuts (“nerts”); and a ventriloquist dummy popular in the ‘40s named Mortimer Snerd.

In the ‘50s, nerds were “square,” but the 1984 movie Revenge of the Nerds started to hint that it was “hip to be square.” Computer culture also helped nerd take flight, but the word wasn’t explicitly associated with technology. Technological prowess was never a requirement to be a nerd; only that the nerd be extremely intelligent in any academic area to which they paid attention while ignoring the trivial social scene.

Despite being less cool, nerd has definitely achieved a trendier and more complimentary status than dork and dweeb. It’s rare to find a proud “computer dork” or a “word dweeb,” but self-touting “computer nerds,” “book nerds,” and “word nerds,” are everywhere (as they should be!) From the outset, then, nerd seems to operate like geek in that you can preface nerd with just about any subject in which you claim to have some sincere interest and expertise.

caveat, though. A quick search of a database on contemporary English shows that the people using nerd are often retaining more of its academic focus: “math nerd,” “language nerd, “meteorologist nerd,” “chemistry nerd,” “statistics nerd,” even “bibliophilic nerd.”Geek on the other hand … geek often branches out into more social scenes: “movie geek,” “space geek,” “music geek,” “guitar geek,” “band geek,” “suburban lawn geek,” “fantasy football geek,” “gardening geek” … you get the picture. So, let’s get geeky!


Thursday, May 12, 2022

Banana Mobile HP - to those Mobile fanatic.

 


Banana Phone Wireless Bluetooth Mobile Handset

Best for: Those who are attached to their cell phones

“You know that’s a banana, right?”

“Yes.”

“But it’s a banana.”

“I’m aware.”

“You do realize, you’re talking into a banana?”

Welcome to every day for the rest of your giftee’s life—or as long as they continue to enjoy carrying around this banana-shaped wireless phone that actually works as a phone (but not so much as a banana). Pair it with one of these sleeker, more serious tech gifts and you can totally get away with giving this one, too.

Get Ready and Laugh Out Loud


Human beings, even ones you don’t know that well, all have two things in common: They love to laugh, and they love getting gifts. In fact, speaking on behalf of all humans, if we may, we really can’t decide which we love more—laughs or gifts. That, of course, is where gag gifting comes in. Gag gifts make the perfect stocking stuffers and white elephant gifts, but there is an art to choosing them. You’ll want to find something that shows you know the other person and pokes a little good-natured fun at their quirks. “Good-natured” is the key phrase there.

From classic gag gifts to the strangest things, you had no idea even existed, this list has it all. We’re talking about everything from cat pants (for humans) to chicken harnesses (for actual chickens). Many of these will make the perfect gifts for your brother, but we’ve got something for everyone in your life. That said, you might want to balance out a joke gift with something a little more serious, depending on the occasion, so make sure you also check out our guides to the best gifts for men, women, and kids. Note: These gifts are best paired with the perfect ugly winter sweaters. Happy pranking!




What is it like to be a geek in a prison?

Geek in Prison - one way to kill boredom

What is it like to be a geek in prison?  Well, as my first cellmate used to say about me:  “He kind of strange, but he cool."  He got life for shooting a snitch in the head, and he was the one to greet me when I took that long walk across the floor, and yes there was laughter and snickering.


The first assumption that other inmates make is that an older white guy is a pedophile, so the first order of business is showing them your paperwork.  Even then, they didn’t believe me until I got sent to the camp a few weeks later.  Then a doctor decided that camp was "vacation” for me, and I was recalled back inside the fence.  So, when I returned from camp, there was my old cellie waiting for me.

The so-called geeks hung out at the prison library, and real cons were loathe to step foot in the place, even though their behavior was ignorant.  This attitude stems from their school days when any signs of intelligence were perceived as being part of the “system”.

But geeks have real value in prison because if you can read, write, type, or research (especially legal work), then you can possibly help them.  So, it was a good idea to be cool with me because I helped a lot of people with their motions and communications with the courts.  And as long as you showed respect for their life on the streets, then you usually got the same respect in return.

Generally, the way prison works is that when you first get there, you sit back and observe.  For example, don’t sit in the wrong chair, and move when someone politely asks you to give up the seat. Any signs of hostility will be countered with hostility.  Keep it moving, and keep it friendly. Be wary of people who approach you, and let it happen naturally.

As Michael Douglas said in the sequel to Wall Street, “prison is the best thing that ever happened to me”.  Given my crime, I always thought about Robert DeNiro’s character in Cape Fear when he got out of prison and approached Nick Nolte in his car:  “You gonna learn about loss”.  Exactly right.  Loss of freedom, loss of friends, etc.

 

Sunday, August 17, 2014

Motivasi pagi Isnin.

Participants struggle to reach the prizes during a greased-pole climbing competition held as a part of the independence day celebrations in Jakarta, Indonesia. 
Hanya kesatuan yang kukuh mencapai kejayaan...



Assalamualaikum, pagi Isnin yang mencabar...bangun kerja...kerja..
Siapa cepat dia dapat...apa juga kejayaan yang kita ingini secara individu juga perseorangan memerlukan kerjasama.
Teamwork...kerja berpasukan..
"No man is an Island" "don't live in a silo" 



Sunday, August 10, 2014

No Food, No Water, No Problem For Muslim

The Fasting 5K: No Food, No Water, No Problem For Muslim Runners

Runners form a human bridge at the finish line to cheer fellow racers. Participants completed a 3-mile loop around the National Mall — without food or water since sunrise.

With the sun lingering on the horizon and the Capitol in the distance, runner after runner completed a 3-mile loop around the National Mall and was met with cheers and high-fives. Standing in two parallel lines with hands outstretched, the crowd of mostly 20-somethings formed a celebratory human bridge for their fellow runners to pass under as they crossed the finish line.

In five cities across America on Saturday — D.C., Boston, New York, Houston and Huntington Beach in Southern California — runners wearing bright red t-shirts with the words "Fasting 5K" raced to the finish line at sunset. Tired and thirsty, they were still full of energy.

"The best part about it is just running with everyone," says Nasif Ahmed, 23, a recent graduate of the University of Maryland. "You know you've got some partners along with you, and towards the end it's just really gratifying."

But unlike most races, there was no carbo-loading or chugging water before this 5K: All of the runners were fasting for Ramadan. During this holy month, observant Muslims refrain from eating or drinking from sunrise to sunset.

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