OED Antedates "Nerd"

[Fred Shapiro]

On Sat, 13 Sep 2003, Jesse Sheidlower wrote:

> I'm afraid not. This cite should not have appeared, and will be
> pulled at the next update.

OK, thanks for pointing this out, Jesse.  I guess one advantage of
continuous revision is that mistakes can be corrected far more quickly
than in the past.

For the record, let me mention that the Dr. Seuss theory of the origin of
"nerd" is still questionable, even without the Kazin citation, since
"nerd" appeared in _Newsweek_ in 1951, suggesting that it may have been
around before 1950 (the date of the Seuss character).

Fred Shapiro


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Fred R. Shapiro                             Editor
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