"nerd" etymythology

[Jonathan Lighter]

As we know, a "nerd" is not a "ne'er-do-well."

Nor is it pronounced "naird."

JL

On Sun, Jul 17, 2011 at 9:36 AM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: "nerd" etymythology
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Jul 16, 2011, at 11:54 PM, Ben Zimmer wrote:
>
> > The English actor and comedian Simon Pegg has a new book out called _Nerd
> Do
> > Well_, and in interviews he explains the title as a play on what he
> claims
> > is the etymology of "nerd", from "ne'er-do-well".
> >
> > ---
> >
> http://www.maximumfun.org/sound-young-america/simon-pegg-actor-and-filmmaker-interview-sound-young-america
> > [starting around 2:40]
> > It ["nerd"] does come from the phrase "ne'er do well". I mean, that's
> where
> > the word is derived from. It was a shortening of that, which then became
> > "nehrd" [nE:d] and then "nerd" [n@:d], and then... you know, meaning
> someone
> > on the fringes of society.
> > ---
> > http://www.shortlist.com/entertainment/the-geek-will-out
> > Why call your book Nerd Do Well?
> > That’s where the word ‘Nerd’ comes from. The word Nerd is a shortening of
> > Ne’er Do Well.
> > ---
> >
> > I've heard many proposed etymologies for "nerd" ("knurd" as a reversal of
> > "drunk", "nurd" as a rhyming alteration of "turd", etc.), but this was a
> new
> > one on me. I see on Google Books that it appeared in a May 26, 1987 _PC
> > Magazine_ column by John C. Dvorak ("Origins of the Word 'Nerd'"). Dvorak
> > dismissed the theory, along with many others, in favor of an origin from
> Dr.
> > Seuss's _If I Ran the Zoo_. And John A. Barry seems to suggest that the
> > etymythology was his own in the 1991 book _Technobabble_:
> >
> > http://books.google.com/books?id=ShGYef744mgC&pg=PA151
> >
> > —bgz
> >
> The Dr. Seuss origin seems plausible.  As for John Barry, my faith in his
> etymological prowess is somewhat compromised by his tentatively advanced
> support for a source invoking the French word “noeud” (because it’s used for
> 'a diskless node’ that occupies 'a subservient position on the net’, as well
> as meaning ‘glitch’ or ‘snag’).  The problem is with his phonology, in
> particular the claim that the French word ‘is pronounced approximately like
> a New Englander’s pronunciation of “nerd”’, which he renders as “nuud”.  I
> assume this is at best [noed] where oe is (approximately) a mid-front
> rounded vowel.  Let’s give him the vowel—the problem is that there’s no [d]
> in the French pronunciation of “noeud”, and [nø:], as a French phonetician
> would render it (that’s supposed to be a long o with a diagonal line through
> it, a lower-case empty set symbol), sounds nothing like any (New)
> Englander’s rendering of “nerd”, rhotic or non.
>
> LH
>
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