Age of the geek baby!
Are 'geek' and 'nerd' now positive terms?
Er well I'd say so...
Interesting story here in the BBC magazine
I can remember when both terms was considered an insult...but I kind of love their origins.
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The very first depiction of a "nerd" is believed to have been a hairy, critter created by children's author-illustrator Dr Seuss.
The word "geek" is older, starting out in the early 1900s to refer to a carnival performer whose only skill was the ability to bite the heads off chickens.
It's easy to argue that "nerd" and "geek", with their very different roots, retain different meanings, arguably with the former still more derogatory than the latter. And some see a transatlantic divide, with "geek" used in US and UK, but "nerd" somehow feeling less British.
Surely the apotheosis for those dubbed "geek" came with world wide web inventor Sir Tim Berners-Lee being cheered at the London 2012 opening ceremony.
And the appropriation of the word "nerd" was a "battle that got won", says Gaiman. "It's like many terms that were originally intended to offend, the team that was offended took it as its own as a badge of honour.
"It's part of a cycle, that terms of abuse are turned around - in this case it has been socially turned around."
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Here's a few of my favourites geeks. (And no hairy critter or chicken head biter amongst them!)
Sam Winchester - Supernatural
Daniel Jackson - Stargate SG-1
Alec Hardison - Leverage
Er well I'd say so...
Interesting story here in the BBC magazine
I can remember when both terms was considered an insult...but I kind of love their origins.
------
The very first depiction of a "nerd" is believed to have been a hairy, critter created by children's author-illustrator Dr Seuss.
The word "geek" is older, starting out in the early 1900s to refer to a carnival performer whose only skill was the ability to bite the heads off chickens.
It's easy to argue that "nerd" and "geek", with their very different roots, retain different meanings, arguably with the former still more derogatory than the latter. And some see a transatlantic divide, with "geek" used in US and UK, but "nerd" somehow feeling less British.
Surely the apotheosis for those dubbed "geek" came with world wide web inventor Sir Tim Berners-Lee being cheered at the London 2012 opening ceremony.
And the appropriation of the word "nerd" was a "battle that got won", says Gaiman. "It's like many terms that were originally intended to offend, the team that was offended took it as its own as a badge of honour.
"It's part of a cycle, that terms of abuse are turned around - in this case it has been socially turned around."
------
Here's a few of my favourites geeks. (And no hairy critter or chicken head biter amongst them!)
Sam Winchester - Supernatural
Daniel Jackson - Stargate SG-1
Alec Hardison - Leverage