CS Knowledge Base

• knurd (folk etymology, very rare)
• nurd (very rare)

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!

• Possibly a rebracketing of inert as a nert, as in he's inert = he's a nerd, in reference to one's lack of competence or athletic ability.
• Various unlikely folk etymologies and less likely backronymic speculations also exist.

• (Received Pronunciation, Australian) IPA^(key): /nɜːd/

  • Audio (Australian):

    (file)

• (US) enPR: nûrd, IPA^(key): /nɝd/

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

• (Scotland) IPA^(key): /neɹd/
• (New Zealand) IPA^(key): /nøːd/
• (Liverpool, fair–fur merger) IPA^(key): /neːd/
• (Humberside, Teesside, fair–fur merger) IPA^(key): /nɛːd/
• Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)d

nerd (plural nerds)

1. (slang, sometimes derogatory) A person who is intellectual but generally introverted.

   The bullies used to call him a nerd at school.

   • 1953 Advertisement for "Businessman's Lunch", a play by Michael 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.

   • 1984 December 29, Duncan Mitchel, “The Cult of Gay Machismo”, in Gay Community News, volume 12, number 25, page 9:

     I once found myself listening to a gay man who was saying wistfully, "I wish there was someplace you could go, maybe a club, where only masculine men would be allowed in." […] Ever tactful, I did not point out to him that if such a place existed, he probably would not be allowed into it, for while he wasn't a campy sort he was too much of a nerd to meet his own specification.

   • 2002, Sam Williams, Free as in Freedom:

     "We were all geeks and nerds, but he was unusually poorly adjusted," recalls Chess, now a mathematics professor at Hunter College.

   • 2009 February 28, “Orszag to present budget blueprint”, in WBBH:

     "Yes, I am super nerd, and the whole room cracked up," Said Orszag.

2. (informal, sometimes derogatory) One who has an intense, obsessive interest in something.

   Synonyms: geek, (Australia) dag, propeller head

   Hyponym: otaku

   a computer nerd

   a comic-book nerd

3. (informal, sometimes derogatory) A member of a subculture revolving around intellectualism, technology, video games, fantasy and science fiction, comic books and assorted media. [from 1980s]
4. (informal, sometimes derogatory, dated) One who is stupid and socially inept or unattractive; a social outcast. [from 1970s until early 1990s]
   • [1976, Frank Shiras, Go Ask Alice, Dramatic Publishing, →ISBN, page 25:

     ALICE: Prithee , what might a nerd be ?
     GLORIA: A nerd is an idiot or other person absurd.]

   • 1979, World Vision:

     To much of the world, we in America are nerds. We don't understand the world we live in.

   • 1988, Dean Marney, The Trouble with Jake's Double, Dean Marney, →ISBN, page 98:

     "You're a nerd, Jake, a nerd. You're stupid. You're clumsy. You're dirt, Jake. You're nothing."

   • 1990 April 23, Gary Larson, “[a cartoon depicting a cowboy leaving an outhouse with toilet paper attached to his spur]”, in The Far Side:

     Nerds of the Old West

• See also Thesaurus:dork

• → Danish: nørd
• → Dutch: nerd
• → Faroese: nørdur
• → Finnish: nörtti
• → Icelandic: nörd
• → Norwegian Bokmål: nerd
• → Norwegian Nynorsk: nerd
• → Polish: nerd
• → Portuguese: nerd
• → Spanish: nerd
• → Swedish: nörd
• → Turkish: nörd

• Douglas Harper (2001–2026), “nerd”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

• nerd on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Category:Nerds on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons

• dern, rend

Borrowed from English nerd.

• IPA^(key): /nøːrt/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: nerd

nerd m (plural nerds, diminutive nerdje n)

1. nerd

Borrowed from English nerd.

• IPA^(key): /nærd/, /nøːɖ/
• Rhymes: -ærd, -øːɖ

nerd m (definite singular nerden, indefinite plural nerder, definite plural nerdene)

1. a nerd

• “nerd” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Borrowed from English nerd.

nerd m (definite singular nerden, indefinite plural nerdar, definite plural nerdane)

1. a nerd

• “nerd” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Borrowed from English nerd.

• IPA^(key): /ˈnɛrt/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛrt
• Syllabification: nerd

nerd m pers

1. (derogatory) nerd (intellectual, skillful person, generally introverted)

• “nerd”, in Polish dictionaries at PWN‎^[1] (in Polish)

Unadapted borrowing from English nerd.

nerd m or f by sense (plural nerds)

1. nerd (intellectual, introverted and quirky person)

   Synonyms: totó, (Brazil) CDF

nerd (invariable)

1. nerdy (who is a nerd)

Until recently, this word was somewhat pejorative. Nowadays it is used both negatively and positively.

• “nerd”, in Dicionário Aulete Digital (in Portuguese), Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon Editora Digital, 2008–2026
• “nerd”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2026

• nerdo

Unadapted borrowing from English nerd.

• IPA^(key): /ˈneɾd/ [ˈneɾð̞]
• Rhymes: -eɾd
• Syllabification: nerd

nerd m or f by sense (plural nerds)

1. (slang, Latin America) nerd

   Synonym: friki

• “nerd”, in Diccionario de americanismos [Dictionary of Americanisms] (in Spanish), Association of Academies of the Spanish Language [Spanish: Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española], 2010