nerd

   1.   [mainstream   slang]   Pejorative  applied  to  anyone  with  an
   above-average  IQ  and  few  gifts  at small talk and ordinary social
   rituals.

   2.  [jargon] Term of praise applied (in conscious ironic reference to
   sense 1) to someone who knows what's really important and interesting
   and doesn't care to be distracted by trivial chatter and silly status
   games. Compare {geek}.

   The  word  itself appears to derive from the lines "And then, just to
   show them, I'll sail to Ka-Troo / And Bring Back an It-Kutch, a Preep
   and  a  Proo,  / A Nerkle, a Nerd, and a Seersucker, too!" in the Dr.
   Seuss book If I Ran the Zoo (1950). (The spellings `nurd' and `gnurd'
   also  used to be current at MIT, where `nurd' is reported from as far
   back as 1957; however, {knurd} appears to have a separate etymology.)
   How it developed its mainstream meaning is unclear, but sense 1 seems
   to  have  entered  mass culture in the early 1970s (there are reports
   that  in the mid-1960s it meant roughly "annoying misfit" without the
   connotation of intelligence.

   Hackers  developed  sense  2 in self-defense perhaps ten years later,
   and  some actually wear "Nerd Pride" buttons, only half as a joke. At
   MIT  one can find not only buttons but (what else?) pocket protectors
   bearing the slogan and the MIT seal.

[glossary]
[Reference(s) to this entry by made by: {knurd}]