Collegiate "geek" in the '70s (was Re: Synonymy avoidance)

[Jonathan Lighter]

Google says that some nerds do have wads after all.  "Geek" and "nerd" are closer, I think, than "geek" and "dork." ("Dork" also means "penis" and "geek" does not.)  However, a "nerd" need not be a "geek" in the computer sense.  A "nerd" need only be a "drip."

Any other challengers to "gorse" and "furze"?  Anf if they are indeed the only exact synonyms in English, who is the genius who discovered the fact ?

JL

Ed Keer <edkeer at YAHOO.COM> wrote:
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Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Ed Keer
Subject: Re: Collegiate "geek" in the '70s (was Re: Synonymy avoidance)
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But don't forget that the geekwads and dorkwads formed
a historic wad alliance. While the nerds have no wad.

Ed


--- Benjamin Zimmer wrote:
> On Thu, 10 Mar 2005 21:46:39 -0500, Michael McKernan
> wrote:
>
> >Good to see nerd/nurd appear in this thread. I
> almost included it as a
> >'whin' analog in my geek/dork post (and it actually
> appeared in the later
> >text of the online ad which prompted my post).
> >
> >But whadabout dork?
> >
> >As I see/hear it, dork matches geek a lot more
> closely than nerd does, in
> >all the non-semantic aspects of synonymy. Then
> again, nobody else seems to
> >be very interested in comparing geek/dork (nerd) to
> gorse/furze (whin).
>
> I would say that in current usage, "geek" aligns
> with "nerd", not "dork".
> "Dork" is invariably pejorative, while both "geek"
> and "nerd" have been
> subject to melioration as the "techie" sense of both
> terms has become more
> prominent. "Nerd" was first to undergo ironic
> melioration, no doubt
> inspired by the 1986 movie _Revenge of the Nerds_
> (an expression
> subsequently applied to the success of Bill Gates et
> al.) "Geek" has
> followed the meliorative path of "nerd"-- witness
> the article in the
> latest _Time Magazine_ on the consumer-electronics
> retailer Best Buy:
>
>
http://www.time.com/time/insidebiz/article/0,9171,1034713,00.html
>
> Part of Best Buy's recent success has been
> attributed to their deployment
> of "the Geek Squad", an army of knowledgeable
> techies who work as "agents"
> assisting befuddled customers.
>
> See also this 2003 _USA Today_ article on "geek
> chic":
>
>
http://www.usatoday.com/life/2003-10-22-geek-chic_x.htm
>
>
> --Ben Zimmer
>



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