nerd

Etymology

Unknown. Attested since 1951 as US student slang. * Perhaps an alteration of nerts (“nuts", "crazy”); see references below. * The word, capitalized, appeared in 1950 in Dr. Seuss’s If I Ran the Zoo as the name of an imaginary animal: *: And then, just to show them, I’ll sail to Katroo / And bring back an It-Kutch, a Preep and a Proo, / A Nerkle, a Nerd and a Seersucker too! * Various unlikely folk etymologies and less likely backronymic speculations also exist.

noun

1. (slang, sometimes derogatory) A person who is intellectual but generally introverted.
   1953 Advertisement for "Businessman's Lunch", a play by Micheal Quinn, in Patricia Brown, Gloria Mundi They particularly enjoy making fun of one of their fellows who is not present, whom they consider a hopeless nerd – until, that is, they learn he is engaged to marry the boss's daughter.
   "We were all geeks and nerds, but he was unusually poorly adjusted," recalls Chess, now a mathematics professor at Hunter College. 2002, Sam Williams, Free as in Freedom
   "Yes, I am super nerd, and the whole room cracked up," Said Orszag. Feb 28, 2009, “Orszag to present budget blueprint”, in WBBH
2. (informal, sometimes derogatory) One who has an intense, obsessive interest in something.
   a computer nerd
   a comic-book nerd
3. (informal, sometimes derogatory) A member of a subculture revolving around intellectualism, video games, fantasy and science fiction, comic books and assorted media. [from 1980s]