European Geeks/Nerds?

[Jim Walker]

I'm not sure I know all the connotations of "geek" and "nerd," but there
is, or  was, a British term "swot," whose semantic range seems at least to
intersect with these.  It means (or meant) something like 'studyoholic',
and "swotting" means 'really hitting the books'.  Some of our British
listers may be able to shed better light on this word.


**To the best of my knowledge (I'm British, but have lived in France for the
last 10 years, which has done shocking things to my native speaker
intuitions), still "means" rather than "meant". 'Swot' has the studyoholic
connotation, certainly, but I think you have to be a successful studier, by
which I mean that it has 'top of the class' connotations, too. If you spend
half your life in a library, but you still cannot pass your exams, you're
not a swot. You're a would-be swot. If you come top of the class without
having to do a jot of work, then you're not a swot either. I wouldn't say
that there is anything 'nerdy' or 'geeky' about a swot, though. Sometimes
extended to 'girly swot', regardless of sex, which in itself says a lot
about gender stereotyping in schools. I wouldn't agree with Michael Quinion
that it is "deeply pejorative". If anything, it feels slightly endearing to
me (maybe this is just personal, I went throughout my schooldays being
called a swot, but it wasn't meant pejoratively. Was it?). Typical sentence:
"the girly swots always sit at the front of the class". I would also suggest
that it is not as old as Michael Quinion suggests. My schooldays are, what,
15 years behind me, and the term was alive and well then, and my
half-brother of 10 at least understands it, if he doesn't use it himself

On a similar note, the term in vogue when I studied at Cambridge (a place
for swots if ever there was one) for the 'nerds' was "Comski / Comsci /
Comsky" (I don't remember ever having seen it written), which was derived
from "Computer Science". Even more common, and I would venture elmost
entirely synonymous, was "Natsky", from "Natural Science"

Best regards

Jim Walker, a swot but no natsky


Jim Walker
Maître de Conférences
Directeur du 1er cycle
Dpt. d'Etudes du Monde Anglophone
Université Lumière Lyon 2
86 rue Pasteur
69365 LYON Cedex 07

Jim.Walker at univ-lyon2.fr