Akkam’s Razor

“The philosopher Timothy Charles Paul Fuller adopted the term nerd in the mid-1960s to describe a stereotypical intelligent recluse with poor social skills, one often the butt of others’ jokes. The word itself first appeared in Dr. Seuss’s book If I Ran the Zoo, published in 1950, where it simply names one of Seuss’s many comical imaginary animals. (The narrator Gerald McGrew claims that he would collect ‘a Nerkle, a Nerd, and a Seersucker too’ for his imaginary zoo.) Another theory of the word’s origin sees it as a version of Mortimer Snerd, the name of Edgar Bergen’s ventriloquist dummy. Yet another theory traces the term to Northern Electric Research and Development, where the employees wore pocket protectors with the acronym N.E.R.D. printed on them. And yet another theory claims that nerd comes from the word ‘drunk’ reversed to ‘knurd’, to illustrate someone who did not drink at parties.”

“…and the geeks shall inherit the earth.”

Popularity: 2% [?]