"Nerd" | Etymosemanticology
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 11 ก.ย. 2024
- what is?
Discuss this video on reddit:
/ nerd
If you want to learn more, there were three main places I got information for this:
- eldacur.com/~br...
- American nerd: the story of my people by Benjamin Nugent
- Nerd Ecology by Anthony Lioi
The XKCD comic I used:
xkcd.com/747/
The image from DesignTAXI I used:
designtaxi.com/...
intro song:
• Kadenza - Flight of th...
My grandma completely freaked out when I called myself a nerd. I mean, jaw on the floor, do you need counceling, this is the definition of self hatred, kind of look. I still can't convince her that its a good thing.
3:46
That awkward moment when your brain reads "pɹǝu" in IPA.
"pruh-oo," whatever that means.
You know your a language nerd when you accidentally read things in IPA.
+Zac Lobel A language pɹəu, even.
If you treat the "əu" as a diphthong, it's roughly how "pro" is pronounced in some dialects of English.
TheMrME1 that's a triple entendre! Him being a nerd reading "nerd" upside down is actually him being a pro at reading "pro"!
Joseph Connell that just made me lean back and go wəu bɹəu
"Quick, is anyone here a doctor?"
"I am!"
"Well you're a nerd!"
*high-fives
I periodically forget Xidnaf is/was a brony until I rewatch the old videos, it always makes me chuckle, it's like a funny internet fossil.
OH MY GOSH XIDNAF IS BAACCCKKK
HE'S ALIIIIVVVEEEE
?
He hadn't posted too long ago before this. Stop fishing for likes.
xy. jmive .ui
With 236 patrons, he better be alive!
yeet
It's hip to be square.
Do you like Huey Lewis and The News? Their early work was a little too new wave for my tastes, but when Sports came out in '83, I think they really came into their own, commercially and artistically. The whole album has a clear, crisp sound, and a new sheen of consummate professionalism that really gives the songs a big boost. He's been compared to Elvis Costello, but I think Huey has a far more bitter, cynical sense of humor.
HEY PAUL!
A very angry Seal
Circles are cooler
It's hip to fuck bees.
It's edgy to be square. x4
I became a nerdfighter around 2009 when I was in 11th grade and nerd was still used as an insult then but it was thanks to the vlogbrothers that I stopped feeling that way. One time, I corrected our chem teacher's math and someone said "you're such a nerd" and I felt pride for getting that label for the first time. So yes, thank you to the vlogbrothers
Ephy he says he was given a grant from them
I really like this type of video. You should do one like this, but for the word "meme"
saw your prof pic and I was like "bruh..."
but why
JmmiP 20 From what I've read, it still retains it's original meaning, "a unit of thought" in the same way a gene is "the unit of genetic expression". The idea is that memes "want" to get passed down, in a similar manner as genes. The modern use often refers to "internet memes" which some have pointed out act more like viruses than regular genes, which explains why some memes are no longer funny; we've grown immune to them
linguistics with dank maymays, yay
Jesus Olivares that's a pretty interesting point
i'm 20 and i've always loved being called a nerd. the few times anyone ever used the term in a derogatory sense it was someone much younger than me. they were always met with a big sarcastic "noooooo, really?"
nerd's always been a good thing to me.
an interesting side story here is when you mentioned "computer freaks." There is another spelling that was much more common in the late 70s and 80s of "computer phreaks." They were basically early hackers. The term derived from those who would pirate phone service _frequencies_ 😉. These "frequers" followed some of the things espoused by The Anarchist Cookbook, so the intentionally misspelled that name as a subversive measure, calling themselves "phreakers." And "computer geek" simply morphed from that label.
Huh wow
Learn something new every day. This is fascinating
And then that became friki in spanish..? Which is used for nerd and even geek?
I think the meaning flipped when the income potential of the people who it was used on skyrocketed. Fashion often follows economics, and lots of disposable income can make pretty much any identity 'cool'.
As for nerd as an insult, eh, I still hear it, and I think it is on the rise. When you start watching the more anti-intellectual communities, 'nerd' starts becoming more and more derogatory. Part of this, I think, is we are starting to see a split in the affluent tech communities between the 'nerdy' liberal/intellectual end and the more libertarian 'brogrammer' side who enjoy the wealth/power/status but are culturally very different than the pre-dot-com tech community.
Partly, I don't think the meaning changed, society's attitudes towards nerds changed, roughly when the uber-nerd, Bill Gates, became the world's richest man. He gave a famous speech which suggested that the audience go easy on their nerds because they'll be their bosses one day.
The meaning changed because the web propelled the meaning as it was changing on to the international English community where the words nerd and geek had no prior meaning.
neeneko Really? Where are you from? Legitimately curious here. I've never heard anyone use the word nerd as a real insult. Ever since I've been born. Maybe it has something to do with the communities I grew up with. I did go to private school for middle school and highschool (kind of a run-down-ish ones though), but I also knew a bunch of kids from public schools, and I was homeschooled through elementary so I was even familiar with people from my homeschooling communities. There was definitely judgement and bullying towards people who the word nerd traditionally represents. However, the word nerd was never actually used in my experience.
Mid atlantic US. Grew up in a hybrid rural/suburban area, and oh boy was it still used as an insult in the 90s. In college (late 90s, early 2000s) I heard it used by ChemEs in fairly derogatory ways.
Though even today I hear it crop up in tech circles. The general feel I get is that 'nerb' became fashionable when all those high paying jobs were going to people from that community, but as those jobs are migrating to more traditionally masculine people, the term is starting to fall into negative territory again.
neeneko Fascinating. I grew up in Maryland. Was born during the 90's. Maybe It's our age gap? Or maybe It's just the area I grew up in. I did go to an out of state college up in New England, but that only lasted a year (ran out of money), so maybe I just wasn't there long enough to have heard it.
I remember the 1960's and I still find it strange that people proudly call themselves nerd or geek. I'm also surprised that these words that once referred to people who were involved in math and science now refer to people who are involved in video games.
What's interesting is that many European languages have borrowed the word "nerd" from English, but in a lot of these languages the shift from derogatory to positive hasn't happened yet.
nerd got thrown around as an insult a lot in my high school, I'm 20 years old. Granted I live in a place where the kids weren't so well informed
Same
"nerd"
"Your current use of the word is terribly outdated"
"See, this is why people call you a nerd"
+PrimaPunchy Just like there is no use debating the usefulness of philosophy. Once you discuss the usefulness, you're into philosophy.
KJ Teoh same. I'm almost 22, and I would say that being a nerd really wasn't considered "cool" until about the time I started high school in 2009. Before that, I was always one of the few kids even interested in video games, which was considered very nerdy. I was also good at and loved science and math (another nerdy trait). Growing up, girls would see that I was nerdy and be like "eww, you're a nerd. Go away". But now I've had women be like "I think it's so cool that you're nerdy".
+64imma well the 10s were never a good time to think about relationships, I mean there is seldom thinking involved for most of us.
+Sosiris Tseng bit of a catch 22 we have on our hands
Interesting, I play Jazz and conduct Wind Ensemble (basically like a classical orchestra but with primarily wind instruments and no strings) but I've never made the connection between "square" and the typical 4/4 conducting pattern. Often in music when we talk about something being "square" or "square as a box" we're referring to rhythms that are simple and on the beat (as opposed to swung figures or figures that are syncopated.)
The conducting pattern is really more of a triangle anyway.
4
| \
| \
23 (right hand, viewed from the perspective of the conductor)
I think he meant 2/4, actually
How did you get that "1" over the line! D:
Ik it's late but I suppose there's not much connection there. I imagine the origin of the usage "square" in such a context is referring to 4 as a square number, and 2 as the previous in the series of 4^x (or 2^x).
I'm a traditional jazz musician (family/cultural relations to it and other race music) and totally didn't follow that at first either 😲
First of all, great video! I wish you could make more. Here's an idea!
VIDEO IDEA: Filipino Language and its extreme flexibility and complexity.
Filipino uses the orders S-V-O, V-S-O, and V-O-S.
In Filipino, we use English around 50% of the time, mixing it with the Filipino languages.
Sentences in English can have more than 10 translations, differing with sentence patterns (S-V-O, etc.), native and loan terms, and verb conjugation.
We have "ligatures" or "pang-angkop" that connect adjectives to verbs or vice versa (sweet food; food that is sweet; matamis na pagkain; pagkaing matamis)
Verbs conjugate in 4 simple tenses: Past, Present, Future and Recent? (Katatapos). Adjectives and verbs repeat the first syllable of their root word if the doer (verb's subject) or describee? (adjective's object).
Like Japanese, we distinguish pronouns e.g. there and here in 3 ways: ito (close to speaker), iyan (far from speaker, close to listener), and iyon (far from both). We also have a different term for these in the context of "like this" or "in this way" e.g. Ganito ang pag-aalaga ng aso. (This is how to care for a dog or Caring for a dog is like this.)
To summarize, great job again and please consider making a video about the Filipino language and goodbye! :-)
"Seersucker" wasn't made up by Dr. Seuss. It's a term for a stripey all-cotton fabric, the kind that old-timey railroad conductors would wear on their hat and overalls. Or like the suit an old-timey southern gentlemen might wear.
The word is Persian and means "milk and sugar," probably because of the typically creamy color and soft ripply or lumpy texture of the fabric.
Thank you! I was about to comment the same thing
GelidGanef ahahah! I commented this too. Looks like someone else on here likes Lexicon Valley ; )
Just about to comment the same thing.
In Persian it would be pronounced "Sheersheckar"
And there's a lyric from a well-known rock band: "My jacket's gonna be cut and slim and checked / Maybe a touch of *_seersucker_* , with an open neck"
I'm in my mid-30s and grew up in south Texas, attending high school in the mid- to late-90s.
"Nerd" was a common insult I received, often accompanied by physical violence.
Anecdotally, of course.
I remember being called by my friend as a "dork" when I was younger, maybe during our elementary years. It was a half-insult half-pet name, and in my hierarchy of "weird-ness" that word is at the most bottom of the list, followed above by "nerd" and "geek." Hence I always told my friends to consider me "geeky" instead of "nerdish."
Also, my high school teacher always called me as the "guy who dated nerds," as the girl that I was dating at that time (and also girls who were romantically associated to me through the grapevine) were mostly, well, to use his term, nerds.
*eternal sigh*
AND FINALLY XIDNAF IS BACK WHEEEEEEEEEEEEE
This video is good.
The big bang theory is for people who aren't actually nerds in the sense you described making it a bit unbearable to me.
Right, they're actually geeks.
They're actually awful people lol
I'm not aware of Colonel Sassacre's etymological works. His daunting text of magical frivolity and practical japery is much more familiar to me
But be careful, dropping it may kill a cat.
Here in Israel the equivalent word in Hebrew is still used by some people as an insult, and people still don't generally call themselves nerds. But i am a happy, proud חנון.
Bary Levi interesting! how do you pronounce that?
Khnun with a hard Kh
dnys Who knows
Bary Levi wait, hard kh as in velar fricative or velar stop?
Jovan Emeric people who speak hebrew and have somehow mastered the dark arts of inferring vowels
Best Valentine's Day video I've seen so far
In Brazil (or at least in the social circles i've been through my life) it took some years for the word "nerd" to lose it's bad meaning, I'm a teenager/young adult and when I was a child I was bullyed at school for being nerd. Only in my early teenage years that nerds became more "respected" and viewed as a sub-culture as you said in the video.
I found it interesting to note that in Daria (an animated series that ran from 1997 until 2002), the word "geek" is still hugely pejorative, to all characters.
Right after that, the meaning shift hit the mainstream.
My English teacher (I live in Italy) once called one of my classmates 'nerd' (it was meant to be derogatory)
That could be for two reasons.
I think that the younger people use 'nerd' a lot more often and so they are more knowledgeable about its connotations. And the teacher was Italian and not a native English teacher (possibly), so that could explain it.
"People whose obsession with the minousha(forgive my misspelling) of some topic made them unbearable to be around." *realises he's watching a Xidnaf video* *_cries in a corner_*
Many of the graphics are really clever and creative in expressing concepts quickly while keeping up with a fast paced narration.
1:36 A complete diagram of me
Same for me, except for the introverted part. I'm weirdly extroverted, but still bad at socializing. That's depressing.
Compulsive Walker Most important thing then is to not be ‘annoying’
@@metametodo sameee fellow extravert nerd
I wonder why
The word is used here in Germany as well. After my stay in the US, I associated the word nerd with what was described here in the video. Started calling myself and others nerds. People wouldn’t know how to react. Turns out the shift in semantics from having any derogatory meaning hasn’t faded here in Germany yet.
"Be there, or be square." Because if you're a square... You're never aROUND get it? ahahahaHAHAHAHAhaha ohhh shit Cthulhu save us
Awesome to see you still making stuff, Xidnaf, and with Vlogbrothers sponsorship, too!
The way I see it, nerd is a person who is focused on technology and some disciplines of science that he neglects his social life. A geek is someone who is enthusiastic about the cultural aspects of science and technology, like animes, gadgets, and sci-fi. Think of it as a Linux guy vs Apple guy.
I've heard the word "Nerd" in circumstances, that don't come near to computer or science. Like action toys.
Half Eye It's not an Oxford dictionary definition. It's how I see it from hearing it in so many contextes. Action figure collectors would be geeks in my book. That, of course, doesn't mean the two subcultures can't overlap in one person; you can be both nerd and a geek at the same time.
@@HalfEye79 Wait about a Windows guy who likes Star Trek?
wait what colonel sassacre
huh I didn't expect to see a reference to that here
Hyper7 Homestuck is secretly everywhere
*chants
ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US!
@@jettiz3703 ONE OF US, ONE OF Ũ̪̯̝̯̟̈̽̚S̝̯̈̃
1:28 so a 1950s equivalent of “Normie”?
A-ha! Sweet you're doing Etymology videos now! I really look forward to more of these!
Don't you just love it when dead you tubers come back to life! Awesome video as always Xidnaf!
So glad you're back. Keep it up, mate!
and linguistics, my friend, just came full circle
I love it
It seems Xidnaf is about my age, maybe even from the same year, according to your timeline. 1997 is my year of birth.
Great video format, I loved the timeline idea.
"Nørd" in Danish was used as a derogatory when I went to school against me however I somehow managed to stop that by taking pride in it. And at the same time the national broadcast channel was using it as the name of two science programs it was running. One was "Lille Nørd" (literally "Small Nerd") which was mainly about nature and aimed at younger kids and the other was "Store Nørd" (literally "Big Nerd") which was kinda like Mythbusters except they would have some sort of challenge they would have to solve with engineering and was aimed at older kids and young teens. That probably is part of what gave me the confidence to proudly call myself a nerd.
Also "Nørd" is one of the few English words imported during the later half of the 20th century that was changed. Others from the same time like computer, internet and e-mail were just copied verbatim. But "Nerd" was changed into "Nørd" which is probably because trying to pronounce "Nerd" in Danish while keeping it similar to English sounds like "Nørd" and people just wrote it that way, which actually is incredibly interesting because Ø is usually imposible to explain to English speakers, but I think I have a way now.
in urban England we have the work neek, which basically means the same as nerd, but it doesn't really get used for poor fashion choices or whatever, mainly used for people who spend all their time at home revising for their GCSEs, GORGE
I was a young person the 70s and 80s and suffered the negative connotation of the word "nerd".("Geek" too) I was quite pleased to have the connotation of these words undergo a metamorphosis. I was freed by the revelation that Geeks make good money!
Ed, Edd and Eddy anyone?
dorks!
Kaneever that show is one of my favorite shows of all time. My favorite character was double d, just because I always related to him so much. Being smart, socially awkward, always kind and considerate, and not having a lot of friends.
DORK
i was born in 1979 and definitely was called a nerd in a derogatory way growing up. I am also in the generation who first started using computers in middle school and didn't have the internet until college. So it seems to me the word nerd shifted as generations shifted to ones that grew up with computers and where computer skill would be seen as necessary for everyone rather than a deviation from the norm. So essentially, being really good at something everyone has to do is much more socially rewarding than being really good at something very few people do.
"When they conduct a 4/4 beat"
[shows something closest to resembling 2/4]
Good video, just had to nitpick.
I remember the good old days.
When it was hip to be square.
Wow finally! Xidnaf just uploaded a video after like 3 months!
I grew up in the 2000's (you could probably consider me a "90's kid" even though I was born in 1995 and barely remember the 90's at all). I remember in elementary school, I was one of maybe 4 people in the whole school who were really into video games. I remember being called a nerd in a derogatory way, and I felt bad about it. I remember another one of my friends was also really into gaming, and we were bullied and outcasted all the time. Everyone was too busy fantasizing about books or tv shows, to even know about sonic or link or anything like that. I think the last time I had ever been called a nerd as a derogatory term was in 2009, when I wore a t shirt to school with a bunch of marvel heroes on it. This girl asked me "did your mom get that for you?", implying I was some loser nerd whose mom still picks out my clothes. I firmly said "no, i bought it myself". She had no response to that. I remember even when "nerd" was still fairly derogative, I was pretty proud to call myself a nerd. To me, being a nerd was a symbol that I was intellectually superior to most of my classmates who were too dumb to understand me otherwise. It was also a symbol of anti-conformity, as I still stood true to who I was despite not getting along with others too well. I've always despised conformity, so to refuse to become a part of mainstream culture was always something I strived to do. Nowadays, like you said, the term "nerd" is not really a bad thing. Heck, having nerd/hipster glasses is seen as the standard, whereas the glasses I used to wear before this are probably considered "nerdy" (in the bad sense). I think another reason nerd culture has become popular is because it's rather innocent, compared to violent sports or explicit movies. Nowadays you can't watch a tv show or movie without them pretty much fucking on camera at least once. I'm just happy that I have plenty of people willing to play video games with me nowadays. Also, i do think there is a difference still between nerd and geek. Nerd is something cool to be, but geek is the negative side. The really socially awkward, poor hygiene, poor fashion sense kind of person. I would feel honored to be considered a nerd, but insulted to be considered a geek.
64imma Woh you write very well. Still what comes to my mind when I need technical advice about computers is that I need a geek, to me a geek is someone obsessed with computers and videogames not something negative, also I don't live in USA.
Wow. I kindof suspected something like this had gone on, but hadn't looked into it. It totally explains why I see no problem with the words geek and nerd, but when I was younger, they were on the unspoken you-can't-say-these-words-for-some-reason list. Parents would have grown up in the transitional period and seen it as an insult, which is why they didn't like us using it. It wasn't really a strict ban, like with swear words, but more an obligatory "That's not very nice, is it?" whenever it came up in a movie or whatever.
I've never thought that the word was so [relatively] new to the English language.
I've also noticed that "nerd" can be sometimes applied not only to a specific group of people, like those who are very into technology and science, but to anyone with an obsessive interest. For example, i hear phrases like "language nerd", "science nerd", "videogame nerd" thrown around quite a lot. Can it be that the meaning of the word is undergoing yet another major shift at this very moment?
That last line was PERFECT! XD Wrapped the video up perfectly!
Also, don't forget the popular parody hit "white and nerdy" by weird Al Yankovich! :-)
Phrenomythic i remembered Captain Underpants
I love what you do here and I hope you stay here for a good while
It looks like even in the Big Bang Theory "nerd" is still used as an insult or at least a bit derogatory. When Penny asks why Raj can't speak to women Howard says, "because he is a nerd?" As if his social awkwardness was explained by his nerdness. The show seems to show that nerds, seen as the outcasts, can actually accomplish things. I guess the word is sometimes used like "queer", is supposed to be an insult, but people took it as a word to show their "pride"
Awesome video. as someone who was born in the early 80's and who grew up as a 90's and 2000's geek * nerd I think this is very accurate.
Surprised not to hear at least a mention of the original (or at least previous) meaning of "geek", from Merriam-Webster: "1 : a carnival performer often billed as a wild man whose act usually includes biting the head off a live chicken or snake."
Gonna have to disagree on the interchangeability of "nerd" and "geek" there is a large group of people that would easily use them differently and convey meaning between each other by using them differently. Even if others do use them interchangeably, this as far as I'm concerned is enough to say they have different meaning.
OH MY GOD NOW I UNDERSTAND THE PULP FICTION THING THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THIS i thought it was just a quirky tarantino thing, this literally just made my day :D
Wild to think that the book with "Nerd" in it was recently rescinded by the publisher for not representing certain groups or putting them in a negative light. Up until about a month ago you could still buy the book that originated the term nerd, at least chronologically.
i really like how the video ends right after that last pun like its just too painful
Your lifetime? I guess you're a lot younger than me. When I was a kid, I got called a nerd or geek as an insult a lot. I still remember when there was this girl in my class I thought was nice just kind of turned on me to get a laugh from the other guys in the class, and she said "Oh, look, I made the poor nerd cry!"
After watching Inside Out, I'd have to say that's one of my core memories, so while I'm happy it morphed into something more positive, I still remember when it really wasn't and it still kind of brings up memories of bad times.
I loved the little jazz beatnik dude with the beret
I'm 14 and a freshman in high school in Pinellas County, Florida, and I have noticed that I speak much less conservatively than many of my friends who are the same age despite being a native speaker. For instance, rather than pronouncing "written" as [ˈɹ̠ʷɪt̚ʔn̩], as many of my peers do, I pronounce it as [ˈɹ̠ʷɪʔɪn]. Just a little example to give you a general idea.
I rarely see "nerd" being used as an insult, but it is common that people who call themselves nerds are often made fun of. They are also likely to be laughed at or frowned upon whenever they call themselves a nerd. That being said, my personal definition of a nerd is someone who is intelligent. Not to sound egotistic or anything, but I know for sure that I am intelligent due to many factors (don't take my short sentences that are poor in vocabulary as a sign that this is not true; it's 10:44 pm and I woke up at 1:30 am and tbh I don't really feel like trying rn. Once again I'm not saying this to sound like I'm better than anyone or anything, it's just that it's relevant to this), one of which is my IQ, though I would never use the word "nerd" to describe myself for fear of being made fun of. I've noticed that there are more and more people who see the word the same way as I do.
I'm glad you're back. One of my favorite language nerds on TH-cam.
I never really investigated the fact that people said that dr Seuss made the word nerd but I really appreciate you fixing that
excitedly watching a video on the etymosemanticology of the word "nerd" on valentines day.. this is my life now.
I would love for you to do a video on cursive and how it came about and the evolution of cursive ( not just English cursive but cursive in general)
I'm so glad to see my name at the end of the video! Keep the videos flowing :D
0:45 I'd be curious if we could find a source that pre-dates Suess, specifically by looking at Detroit centric sources
ahhhh, I love that total 360 at the very end of the video. that was fantastic lol
One distinction that I don't think was ever very well catalogued or commented on during the geek-nerd merger period was geography. In my experience in the 1990's / early 2000's, Nerd was stronger East of the Mississippi, and Geek was stronger in the West. If you look at Slashdot, which was started in Michigan and calls itself "News For Nerds" as opposed to Felicia Day's California based "Geek and Sundry" empire, it matches what I remember of the usage. I think if you could plot some sort of historical trends in sentiment analysis on a geographical map, you'd be able to see a clear patterm.
It seems a bit odd doing a history on a word that has changed so much just before our lives and while there are still people alive who grew up with the old meaning. I'm roughly the same age as you so I've never heard anybody use the word "nerd" as an insult outside of TV. Even here in Scotland it was used much more as a descriptive term for the social group - much like the word ned or goth. Most of us embraced the term in high school.
I'm not criticising you on making this video while you're young BTW, I'm glad you're educating us. It's just that it reminds me that history is happening as we speak and our language is still changing.
A couple of years ago for me, I was in a class where (stupid assignment) people were writing down complements on other people's cards. I wrote down nerd, as a complement, on a very nerdy kids card. And he got randomly upset at it (atleast for me since always saw it as a good thing) and I even got in trouble. Why I hate school: love learning- hate peers
MC GEM id be upset too. Being a pop culture or music or anything popular nerd is cool and accepted. Being a nerd of anything academic is awful. I love talking about linguistics, history and medieval weaponry. And so the term nerd has been used negatively towards me. People around me think that im boring and uninteresting. And this is unrelated but people keep saying that i like to talk about "unimportant shit" while they talk about celebrities getting married or new movies coming out. Its so annoying.
you know, you dont have to make me feel worse, that was nearly two years ago, and it isnt anything like your life, so no need to be rude yourself
MC GEM didnt mean to be rude or anything. Just telling my experience. If i was in that situation. Honestly i wouldve brushed it off because i get insulted all the time and i dont care at this point. But if i knew you meant it as a compliment. I would've thanked you.
1:09 HOMESTUCK REFERENCE, HOMESTUCK SPOTTED ALERT THE GUARDS
So, I actually grew up as a child in the 80's, teenager in the 90's and adult in the 2000's. I saw this gradual-ish change first hand, as in elementary school, I was labeled a nerd to mean offense, but by the 2000's, it had just started to become “cool”.
Revenge of the Nerds was intended to create a juxtaposition between the desire to see the nerds win, and the revulsion of them. c.f. more precisely Booger in the movie. And Urkel wasn't intended to be liked, his popularity came as a surprise, and as his popularity grew, the show shifted focus more and more to him. But even at his “best” moments he was intended to be repulsive.
Then, while in college, we heard stories of the kids then were impressing girls by knowing hexidecimal. There is also another joke, “nerd used to be a 4 letter word, but now it's a 6-figure one.” (or more.)
I think the difference is not so much the awkward and obsessive stereotype, but the subjects the obsessions are related to. People usually use geek to refer to gaming and certain fiction genres: LARPing, RPGs, video games, sci-fi, fantasy, anime, etc. are considered "geeky;" whereas more academic pursuits like science, math, technology, or maybe even linguistics are considered "nerdy."
TFW you want to see more xidnaf videos but there aren't any more and then bam. new video. :)
As a black american. I've noticed our influenced in our everyday english is more connected then I thought.
Specifically in relation ti the word "square" I didn't know it eent that far back.
You should make a video about the basque language
My friends and I use the word "nerd" often and it's not uncommon for me to get called that by them. I just accept it as a fact since I do kind of randomly obsess over schoolwork and go out of my way to learn random things just for the heck of it. Why do you think I'm here now? I got bored and saw informational videos and just thought "alright why not" and so here I am!
I would say, Nerd is a dysphemism.
Btw.:
I never heard about a geek-gasm, but a nerdgasm.
In Sweden we have the word "Nörd", which should be the same thing as nerd, but it's a bit behind, so while I don't think people use it anymore, you can still find series from a few years ago using it as an insult
I believe that geek and nerd, while they mean the same thing, are hierarchical. Geek refers to someone who is smart and has ~ish~ social skills, and the more derogatory nerd refers to someone who goes from having bad social skills to being excluded from all cultural and social activities to collect wires (IT Crowd reference). The main difference between these is that your general geek is someone who is not broadly liked, but can and will interact with all other social groups, while nerd is slightly more derogatory and refers to someone who is shunned by the hypothetical “cool kids” (don’t get me started on the cool kids). Of course, the line between these is very blurry, not on,y the geek-nerd line, but also the normal-geek line. Of course, this is just my opinion
Love it every time you post! But at 1:04 you mentioned a 4/4 beat when your animation showed a 2/4 or a 2/2 beat... or a... well that small pattern has many possibilities, but a standard 4/4 beat looks like this.
upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/94/Conducting-44time.svg/600px-Conducting-44time.svg.png
The word "selfie" used to be a pejorative as well, meaning a photo you had to take of yourself by yourself because you had no friends or anybody who cared about you enough to take your picture. That's when "groupie" came into and promptly fell out of fashion as "selfie" morphed into the... same word but with a different intent? Just as "nerd" did.
Geek refers to people like sysadmins and coders and linux enthusiasts, nerd refers to them and a wide range of other enthusists, like hobbyist linguists, or film enthusiasts, or soundophiles.
3:14 geek originally meant (& I shit you not) a savage trained to devour the heads off of sheep
1:09 Homestuck reference :D
Oh my Боже
Xidnaf is both a brony AND a homestuck?
(6_6) (idk what that face means)
International perspective : these words are very American. In the UK we had a whole set of our own words (boff for example, for nerd.) When they made their way in to regular use in the UK we would have escalated their new meanings as we only knew the way they were used at that point, and the Interwebs would have fuelled that misuse.
You can look at the word Hacker in the same way. Originally it had nothing to do with breaking in to systems and any of the less than legal connotations now associated with it.. it was literally just a word for a gifted programmer.
I always hated the term nerd. Not so much when it was more in line with "lame" or "weak", but the gatekeeping people and pride-in-awkwardness types that used it to exclude others. I think its found a good home in the "my specialty" defintion, being a language-nerd or math-nerd or whatever, and I´m happy that this is more or less where it is now.
Thanks for educating me! Keep up the great work!
Interestingly in London slang the word "Neek" as a combination of the two words has been widely used and understood for a good number of years
It is, however, always used derogatorily, and not always for "nerdy" or "geeky" things. Beeing too keen for example, could make you a neek.
You should link to the Patreon in the descriptions of your videos. It is unobtrusive, and will most likely be how you get new Patreon backers.
4:22 bruh
im pretty sure I completely match like 85% of all of the meanings of nerd and geek ever
Its cool to be a pop culture or video game nerd. Any academic nerd like history or linguistics. You're considered boring and people dont wanna be around you. I know from experience.
Dear Xindaf,
I’d really appreciate it if you could make a video on the Amharic alphabet and its history. When you have time of course. I understand you can be busy so I’m not forcing you.
Best, Yafet
I've used nerd teasingly as an insult. Not to put down, but I guess in a fun way, and usually with women in a flirty way. It surprisingly works sometimes too (probably because it's an "insult" that isn't an actual insult anymore).
For me, nerd and geek are the same but with a categorical distinction. Nerds are more formal in being interested in scholarly subjects, while geeks are interested in more fictional subjects.
tl;dr: nerds like math and science, geeks like video games and comics. There are also way more nerds that are also geeks than geeks who are also nerds.
I heard somewhere that "geek" is an old Ulster-Scott or Scotti insult, so it might be centuries old.