nerd slang (chiefly U.S.).
(nɜːd)
Also nurd.
[Of uncertain origin: sometimes taken as a euphemistic alteration of turd (see, for example, D. L. Gold in Comments in Etymol. (1983) XII. 27), though perh. simply derived from the children's book character cited in quot. 1950.]
An insignificant or contemptible person, one who is conventional, affected, or studious; a ‘square’, a ‘swot’.
| [1950 ‘Dr. Seuss’ If I ran Zoo 49 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!] 1957 Sunday Mail (Glasgow) 10 Feb. 11 Nerd—a square. 1968–70 Current Slang (Univ. S. Dakota) III–IV. 88 Nurd, someone with objectionable habits or traits; an affected person... An uninteresting person, a ‘dud’. 1971 Observer 23 May 36/3 Nerds are people who don't live meaningful lives. 1979 Tucson Mag. Feb. 21/2 Graffitti... Possibly the world's largest depository of nerd art. 1980 Internat. Herald Tribune 21 July 16/1 At MIT, ‘nerd’ is spelled ‘gnurd’... Gnurds study all the time because they like to. 1983 Truck & Bus Transportation July 129/1 When loose-brained nurds crack up the top arrangements of a man o' my calibre, I got no union t' thump them nurds with. 1984 Guardian 17 June 21/2 His..rage..is directed at the whole of American society for its bland, tasteless, pretentious, illiterate ‘nerd-pack’ mentality. 1986 M. Howard Expensive Habits 107 He feels..like a total nerd in his gentleman's coat with the velvet collar. |
Hence ˈnerdy a., characteristic of a ‘nerd’.
| 1978 N.Y. Times 25 Jan. d18 (Advt.), The nerdiest nerds on TV are really smart cookies. 1979 New Yorker 19 Feb. 92 The nurdier clients want foil... ‘If the potatoes are in foil, that's gourmet.’ 1982 Guardian 26 Oct. 8/8 She goes for a really tubular type of dude, the kind of hot babe with a cute butt who isn't all hairy and gross but isn't any nerdy zod either. 1987 N.Y. Times Mag. 31 May 46/3 Our wives..agreed that we had been pretty nerdy back then. |