Timeline for How did nerd and dork become synonyms?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
6 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Jun 16, 2017 at 13:19 | comment | added | aparente001 | Cute image. I have a teenaged neighbor with high-functioning autism who spends his free time on the street corner making observations of the exact times the city buses pass by our street. It's fascinating for him. To each his own! | |
| Jun 16, 2017 at 9:10 | comment | added | Robin Hamilton | @aparente001 "anorak" in this sense first appeared in the UK in the early eighties, but by now, I suspect that the US import, "nerd", has pushed it out of fashion. The archetypal anorak collected train numbers, which involved spending long periods of time in drafty station platforms. They wore anoraks (the garment) to keep warm. | |
| Jun 13, 2017 at 13:54 | comment | added | aparente001 | Oh, so you're saying that in the UK you would say "anorak," and that would be more or less equivalent to the new "nerd" in the US? // Would "nerd" be understood in the UK as I described? | |
| Jun 13, 2017 at 4:54 | comment | added | Robin Hamilton | The term for what you describe (in British slang) is "an anorak". This is slightly more specialized than "nerd", and implies a degree of obsessiveness. | |
| Jun 13, 2017 at 3:41 | comment | added | aparente001 | Nerd can now also be someone who specializes (or overspecializes) in one area, and gets a lot of pleasure out of that. The area might well be something esoteric, and is probably practiced indoors as a non-athletic activity, for example "comic book nerd." There's a certain expertise involved. | |
| Jun 13, 2017 at 1:34 | history | answered | Robin Hamilton | CC BY-SA 3.0 |