Word Geek, Geek Thyself!
If the unexamined life is not supposed to be worth living, I wonder if the unexamined name is worth having. As a testament to self-knowledge, let us turn our word geek powers inward.
Apparently no one is really certain where the word "geek" comes from. It's American slang, for sure, but "From where?" is the unanswered question. Interestingly enough, as with much slang, it's older than you'd guess. The OED gives its earliest attempt at definition at 1876 where it's lumped together with variants of "gawk." ("Gawk" is also American slang, going back to the late 1700s.)
There's an obsolete word, "geck," that we got from Dutch via varying levels of German. It appears in the mid-1500s as a derogatory term for a foolish or easily dismissible person. Our boy, Billy Shakes uses it 50 years later in Twelfth Night among other plays. At the end, during Malvolio's big piteous moment, when he's asking Olivia why she has seemingly led him on only to terribly spurn him he says,
Why have you suffer'd me to be imprison'd,
Kept in a dark house, visited by the priest,
And made the most notorious geck and gull
That e'er invention play'd on. Tell me why?"
So I guess it's possible that "gawk" might have come from "geck." You can certainly see the easy migration from some fool that you'd stare at to staring at something as you would stare at a fool. Certainly there's a strong use relationship between the two, as one may be inclined to gawk at a geek. Still it's always seemed to me that "gawk" is most likely Yankees deriving a word from that experience of standing in slack-jawed stupification. Go ahead, try it. Imagine you're watching a press conference, and President Obama shrugs his shoulders like Atlas releasing the firmament and says, "You know what? Fuck this shit. The truth is folks ... I just hates me some white people!" Okay, now. Be with that image. Let that sink in. Let your mouth fall open. Don't you want to just say, "Gawwwwk!"
So, "geek" could come from "geck." (Shakespeare spelled it alternatively "gecke" and "geecke.") It's hundreds of years later before we get the word's carny connection. A Cincinnati publication named Billboard mentions a "Snake charmer or geek man" in 1919. It's 1935 before we get a written example of "geek" specified to a carnival performer who does disgusting things, specifically the biting of heads off of live animals. And of course, it's the 80s before the word is applied to socially awkward, computer proficient nerds.
"Nerd," by the way, is another mystery. It's American, for sure, and seems to have appeared in the very early 50s -- as past viewers of Happy Days would imagine -- but, again, from exactly where is anybody's guess ... and there are a number of creative guesses.
"Dweeb" similarly appears out of thin air in the 80s. I've always thought of it as a West Coast word but have no evidence to back up that assumption. The OED amusingly posits that it comes from a mix of "dwarf" and "feeb." That tickles me, but somehow I have a hard time seeing So-Cal bohunks reaching into their verbal artillery chest and pulling out "dwarf." But who knows?
A "dork" is, of course, a dick, which means it's one of our many American words for "penis," and the OED has someone defining it as such as early as the mid-60s.
A "doofus" (American again) may be an alteration of "goofus." (The former first appears in print in the early 60s, while the latter precedes it considerably, first appearing in the late 19-teens.) However, there's also a German word, "doof" which means "stupid" in a dopey way. Apparently it's also an ancestor of "deaf." Nice guys. Real nice.
So here's your guide if you intend to be cruel in school in the 80s ...
"Nerd"'s your go-to insult. It's a classic, broad-ranged attack. But it's old school, almost passé. Hell, your parents used "nerd." These days you kind of sound like a nerd using "nerd." Better to go with "dork." It's a hard punch, an all-purpose jab to the solar plexus of self-esteem. "Geek" is for freaks, for when you want to highlight someone's existence as an object of ridicule. "Dweeb" is more for attacks focusing on someone's physical character. Specifically, you want this one for people who are smaller and weaker than you. "Doofus" is for attacking someone's mental processes, for someone who's stupid or slow on the uptake.
So a possible exchange of proper usage between Biff the broad-shouldered, barbaric back end and Howard the harried, hounded, and harassed hall monitor might go something like this ...
BIFF: Outta' my way, dweeb!
HOWARD: God, Biff! Why do you have to be such a dick?
BIFF: You're the dick, dork!
HOWARD: Nice alliteration. Do you do haiku as well?
BIFF: Whatever, doofus.
HOWARD: "Doofus?!?" Biff, if you even develop ganglia in the next ten years it'll be a revolutionary leap forward in evolution!
BIFF: See? That's why nobody likes you! You're always using words nobody understands, geek!
Apparently no one is really certain where the word "geek" comes from. It's American slang, for sure, but "From where?" is the unanswered question. Interestingly enough, as with much slang, it's older than you'd guess. The OED gives its earliest attempt at definition at 1876 where it's lumped together with variants of "gawk." ("Gawk" is also American slang, going back to the late 1700s.)
There's an obsolete word, "geck," that we got from Dutch via varying levels of German. It appears in the mid-1500s as a derogatory term for a foolish or easily dismissible person. Our boy, Billy Shakes uses it 50 years later in Twelfth Night among other plays. At the end, during Malvolio's big piteous moment, when he's asking Olivia why she has seemingly led him on only to terribly spurn him he says,
Why have you suffer'd me to be imprison'd,
Kept in a dark house, visited by the priest,
And made the most notorious geck and gull
That e'er invention play'd on. Tell me why?"
So I guess it's possible that "gawk" might have come from "geck." You can certainly see the easy migration from some fool that you'd stare at to staring at something as you would stare at a fool. Certainly there's a strong use relationship between the two, as one may be inclined to gawk at a geek. Still it's always seemed to me that "gawk" is most likely Yankees deriving a word from that experience of standing in slack-jawed stupification. Go ahead, try it. Imagine you're watching a press conference, and President Obama shrugs his shoulders like Atlas releasing the firmament and says, "You know what? Fuck this shit. The truth is folks ... I just hates me some white people!" Okay, now. Be with that image. Let that sink in. Let your mouth fall open. Don't you want to just say, "Gawwwwk!"
So, "geek" could come from "geck." (Shakespeare spelled it alternatively "gecke" and "geecke.") It's hundreds of years later before we get the word's carny connection. A Cincinnati publication named Billboard mentions a "Snake charmer or geek man" in 1919. It's 1935 before we get a written example of "geek" specified to a carnival performer who does disgusting things, specifically the biting of heads off of live animals. And of course, it's the 80s before the word is applied to socially awkward, computer proficient nerds.
"Nerd," by the way, is another mystery. It's American, for sure, and seems to have appeared in the very early 50s -- as past viewers of Happy Days would imagine -- but, again, from exactly where is anybody's guess ... and there are a number of creative guesses.
"Dweeb" similarly appears out of thin air in the 80s. I've always thought of it as a West Coast word but have no evidence to back up that assumption. The OED amusingly posits that it comes from a mix of "dwarf" and "feeb." That tickles me, but somehow I have a hard time seeing So-Cal bohunks reaching into their verbal artillery chest and pulling out "dwarf." But who knows?
A "dork" is, of course, a dick, which means it's one of our many American words for "penis," and the OED has someone defining it as such as early as the mid-60s.
A "doofus" (American again) may be an alteration of "goofus." (The former first appears in print in the early 60s, while the latter precedes it considerably, first appearing in the late 19-teens.) However, there's also a German word, "doof" which means "stupid" in a dopey way. Apparently it's also an ancestor of "deaf." Nice guys. Real nice.
So here's your guide if you intend to be cruel in school in the 80s ...
"Nerd"'s your go-to insult. It's a classic, broad-ranged attack. But it's old school, almost passé. Hell, your parents used "nerd." These days you kind of sound like a nerd using "nerd." Better to go with "dork." It's a hard punch, an all-purpose jab to the solar plexus of self-esteem. "Geek" is for freaks, for when you want to highlight someone's existence as an object of ridicule. "Dweeb" is more for attacks focusing on someone's physical character. Specifically, you want this one for people who are smaller and weaker than you. "Doofus" is for attacking someone's mental processes, for someone who's stupid or slow on the uptake.
So a possible exchange of proper usage between Biff the broad-shouldered, barbaric back end and Howard the harried, hounded, and harassed hall monitor might go something like this ...
BIFF: Outta' my way, dweeb!
HOWARD: God, Biff! Why do you have to be such a dick?
BIFF: You're the dick, dork!
HOWARD: Nice alliteration. Do you do haiku as well?
BIFF: Whatever, doofus.
HOWARD: "Doofus?!?" Biff, if you even develop ganglia in the next ten years it'll be a revolutionary leap forward in evolution!
BIFF: See? That's why nobody likes you! You're always using words nobody understands, geek!
posted by - caj at 6:44 AM
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