The Geek Identity Debate Redux

materiagirl on the social Venn diagram ::

Oh dear, I think I lie in the Hipster part of the diagram.

I’m more traditional with my definitions of geek and nerd - ‘geek’ for particular interests, ‘nerd’ for hardcore academics.

Of interest, google has these two hits —

geek -

• a carnival performer who does disgusting acts
• eccentric: a person with an unusual or odd personality
  wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn

nerd

• swot: an insignificant student who is ridiculed as being affected or boringly studious
• an intelligent but single-minded expert in a particular technical field or profession
  wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn

The carnival performer definition is more of a historical leftover, really. But it certainly suggests that pariah/misfit status was integral to the geek identity, prior to its modern usage.