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

[Jonathan Lighter]

For the record, notes jotted down on the very scene show that "nerd" was indeed in use at NYU in 1970.  But it had nothing to do with technology.  It was simply a person who was in some usually petty way annoying or obnoxious.

JL


Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at RCI.RUTGERS.EDU> wrote:
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Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Benjamin Zimmer
Subject: Re: Collegiate "geek" in the '70s (was Re: Synonymy avoidance)
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Larry Horn:
>and similarly the classic [veys] (< $200) /[vaz] (> $200) example
>(where the latter is often taken to be more costly)

Jonathan Lighter:
>I've always said /vaz/ even though I can't afford any.
>
>Didn't this "distinction" really start out as a joke ? Does anybody(except
>a few uptight linguists) really observe it ?

AFAIK, Labov was serious when he mentioned a woman in New York having that
distinction. I tracked down the exact reference: it's in _Sociolinguistic
Patterns_, p. 251 (in a footnote).


--Ben Zimmer


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