Nerd

 

Nerd is a word, absurd, daily heard and regularly inferred, but what does it mean? I know what it means, or thought I knew, but hesitation persists around its use in mixed company. Hesitate, because I can never be sure of its negative or positive import. Urban Dictionary online has 275 pages for Nerd. And counting. Browsing this encyclopaedic entry reassures me that I am not alone in feeling the word means what it means to individual users. It is what it is. But what is it? Information Technology, I suggest from my own experience, must be the origin of Nerd. Computer nerds are a stereotype. I have yet to meet one who wears thick glasses, has sallow skin from living 24/7 in a box room, or whose every third word is gigabyte. Variously also known since time began as boffins, wonks, or geeks, they were usually dedicated and efficient; some of them, like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, have been among the richest people in the world. My interest in them was not gigabytes but the way they changed how we read. This is because I’m a word nerd. Bill Gates is rich because he applied his highly specialised interest and knowledge (read: nerdish) in IT. I am not as rich because I’m always attending to my passionate interest and knowledge (read: nerdish) in words. Googling ‘nerd’ I find within seconds that our world is inhabited by algebra nerds, bird nerds, camellia nerds, Dungeons-and-Dragons nerds, emoji nerds, fruit nerds, grammar nerds, hair nerds, intellectual-badass nerds, jazz nerds, keyboard nerds, Lord-of-the-Rings nerds, music nerds, nutrition nerds, object nerds, physics nerds, queen nerds, also Queen nerds, romance nerds, skate nerds, theatre nerds, university nerds, vacuum nerds, whisky nerds, X-File nerds, YouTube nerds, zoo nerds. I should worry. Virtually any enthusiasm under the sun can be nerdish, on this evidence. In context Nerd can be total affirmation, a badge of honour, admission to being one of the gang. It has a humorous chiding quality, warns or warms the listener of more to come. Yet still Nerd can sound to someone else like discrimination, a joke on the wearer, a label. Further discussion over dinner at home clarifies things, not. Is it praise or accusation? Nerds are academic, I am told. Nerds have special interests. But then, Nerds are socially awkward. No, a music nerd is not nerdy because of music, but due to their levels of sheer passion and knowledge: then they’re nerdy. After dinner Venn diagrams are designed. Overlaps abound! Maths and computers can still be Nerdsville, I am told. (What a relief!) Sometimes physics or chemistry. Then talk gets personal. Apparently I’m a graffiti nerd, given my current in-depth abstract art responses to the written urban environment (illustration attached). Armed with Venn diagrams and multiple definitions I could add to Urban Dictionary, I can now venture forth into a nerdy world. But I’m still no clearer as to when Nerd is a compliment, a characterisation, a jibe, or what? But apparently it doesn’t matter, nerdiness, so I’m told. So chill!