Word Wednesday!

Yeah, I know the name is cheesy, but I just had to share this. :]

Don't ask me why, but I was looking up the definition of words that sound kinda weird, don't make any sense.  So, I looked up the word 'nerd.'  When I typed it into dictionary.com, it came up with two definitions.  1. a stupid, irritating, inneffectual, or unattractive person.  2.
an intelligent, but single-minded person, obsessed with a nonsocial hobby or pursuit.

All the while, I'm thinking 'stereotype alert!!'  First of all, who says nerds are unattractive?  Someone's been watching too much TV! Just saying. :]

Anyways, after that, I looked it up on Wikipedia and found something real neat-this is the main reason I wanted to use this word.  You know where the word 'nerd' originated?  I'm sure you all know Dr. Seuss.  Well, HE actually created the word!  In his book If I Ran the Zoo from 1950, in which the narrator Gerald McGrew claims that he would collect "a Nerkle, a Nerd, and a Seersucker, too" for his imaginary zoo.  By the early 1960s, usage of the term had spread throughout the United States and even as far as Scotland. At some point, the word took on connotations of bookishness and social ineptitude.

An alternate spelling, as nurd, also began to appear in the mid-1960s or early '70s.  Author Phillip Dick claimed to have invented the phrase in 1973, but it's first documented use was in a 1965 student publication at Rensselear Polytechnic Institute.  But what really made the slang word 'nerd' popular was the sitcom Happy Days from the 70s.

P!nky