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Geekoids

Nerd n. person with an unhealthy appetite for owning and rebuilding technology.
Techno n. nerd with an unhealthy understanding of technology; a. general term for something or someone technical or technological.
Mod n. modified design of a device or other technology; v. to modify.
Modder n. techno or nerd who mods.
Geek n. nerd, techno, or modder; v. "to geekify" or mod with more techno.
Geekoid n. newly modded idea or concept in the prototyping stage; a geek(ification) that isn't yet fully modded.
 
noodler said:
Geek n. nerd, techno, or modder
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Synthesis of dictionary definitions, from most recent usage to earliest:
  • 1. A computer expert or enthusiast (a term of pride as self-reference, but often considered offensive when used by outsiders.)
  • 2. A person who is single-minded or accomplished in scientific or technical pursuits but is felt to be socially inept.
  • 3. An earnest or hardworking student (usually an objectionable term.)
  • 4. A peculiar or otherwise dislikable person, esp. one who is perceived to be overly intellectual.
  • 5. A person regarded as foolish, inept, or clumsy.
  • 6. A disgusting and repellent person; a creep (a rude and derogatory term.)
  • 7. A carnival performer who performs sensationally morbid or disgusting acts, most famously biting off the head of a live chicken (1916.)
  • 8. A fool (1876.)
This is an interesting evolution, from a mere insult, to a term for someone paid to be disgusting, to a truly disgusting person, back to a mere insult. From there, during the postwar era's explosion of university enrollment, it veers into an insult for intellectuals, and now is used with pride by the architects of the Post-Industrial world.

The word is probably from earlier Scots English "geck," a fool, apparently borrowed from other Germanic languages, in which it is a verb meaning "to mock," originally echoic for "to cackle like a chicken."

This is one of several words adopted from 19th century circus slang, including "bandwagon" and "Siamese twins."
 
Oops, nearly forgot:

Dork n. a nerd with minimal techno, a wannabe geekoid.

Fraggle: I remember the word geck from somewhere, might have been something like Twain or Dickens. I had a weird idea that geek had taken on the character or appearance of being derived from Greek (whether that makes it more acceptable is a matter of taste, I guess. "Going greek on techno" does sound a little weird).
 
noodler said:
Dork n. a nerd with minimal techno, a wannabe geekoid.
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Please don't forget to do your own etymology. Dictionary.com is a surprisingly thorough resource.

Dork:
  • Originally (1964) a vulgar word for penis. Probably, like dong, a whimsical alteration of dick.
  • Now (1967) a person who is strange, stupid, inept, ridiculous. Possibly from the previous usage, or else a coincidental or influenced expressive coinage, using phonetic elements from dolt, jerk, etc.
Nerd:
  • Possibly formed on nert, U.S. student slang in the 1940s for a stupid or crazy person, an alteration of nut.
  • First appearance in 1950, a small, comically unpleasant humanoid creature in If I Ran the Zoo by Dr. Seuss (Theodor Seuss Geisel). Coined arbitrarily to maintain alliteration, or possibly co-opted from an existing, unattested slang word hypothesized above.
  • Later (1957), a dull and bookish person, usually male, originally a synonym for square. This does not resolve the question of its origin, but most authorities give the credit to Dr. Seuss. My own opinion is that Dr. Seuss had so many cute nonsense words floating around in his brain that he probably gathered them unconsciously whenever he ran across them and there's no way to know whether he invented nerd or heard it somewhere.
  • This evolved into a more hostile term for a stupid, foolish, inept, irritating, ineffectual, or unattractive person.
  • It soon narrowed to a dismissive but vaguely sympathetic term for a person with a non- or antisocial hobby or career and the resulting poor social skills.
  • After Sputnik in 1957 made us science and math majors heroes overnight, it slowly became less hostile and meant a person who is single-minded or accomplished in scientific or technical pursuits but is felt to be socially inept.
  • In the Information Age, it is often used with grudging respect for an expert in information technology or a similar high-tech field, but the implication of poor social skills has never been lost.
 
TEACHER

In education, a teacher is a person who provides schooling for others. A teacher who facilitates education for an individual student may also be described as a personal tutor. The role of teacher is often formal and ongoing, carried out by way of occupation or profession at a school or other place of formal education. In many countries, a person who wishes to become a teacher at state-funded schools must first obtain professional qualifications or credentials from a university or college.


These professional qualifications may include the study of pedagogy, the science of teaching. Teachers will have to continue their education after they receive their degree from a college or university. Teachers may use a lesson plan to facilitate student learning, providing a course of study which covers a standardized curriculum. A teacher's role may vary between cultures. Teachers teach literacy and numeracy, or some of the other school subjects. Other teachers may provide instruction in craftsmanship or vocational training, the Arts, religion or spirituality, civics, community roles, or life skills. In some countries, formal education can take place through home schooling.
 
geek: n.
A person who has chosen concentration rather than conformity; one who pursues skill (especially technical skill) and imagination, not mainstream social acceptance. Geeks usually have a strong case of neophilia. Most geeks are adept with computers and treat hacker as a term of respect, but not all are hackers themselves — and some who are in fact hackers normally call themselves geeks anyway, because they (quite properly) regard ‘hacker’ as a label that should be bestowed by others rather than self-assumed.
One description accurately if a little breathlessly enumerates “gamers, ravers, science fiction fans, punks, perverts, programmers, nerds, subgenii, and trekkies. These are people who did not go to their high school proms, and many would be offended by the suggestion that they should have even wanted to.”
Originally, a geek was a carnival performer who bit the heads off chickens. (In early 20th-century Scotland a ‘geek’ was an immature coley, a type of fish.) Before about 1990 usage of this term was rather negative. Earlier versions of this lexicon defined a computer geek as one who eats (computer) bugs for a living — an asocial, malodorous, pasty-faced monomaniac with all the personality of a cheese grater. This is often still the way geeks are regarded by non-geeks, but as the mainstream culture becomes more dependent on technology and technical skill mainstream attitudes have tended to shift towards grudging respect. Correspondingly, there are now ‘geek pride’ festivals (the implied reference to ‘gay pride’ is not accidental).
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http://www.catb.org/esr/jargon/html/index.html (THE resource for real geeks :p)
 
Fraggle: sorry for not supplying origin data on geekoids.
Still not sure about nerd, but it's a word everyone probably has an image of - black framed specs, books under arm, Bill etc.

I think the word dork has a non-techno meaning as well, referring sometimes to a male who tries to be mysterious with women, or does "helpful" things for them.
In the computer lab, it's the guy who can't debug their program and has to ask a female student.
 
"Salty dog" - I was called that in a friendly way by female fellow graduate student I lived with for nearly two years. I never knew exactly what it meant nor have I ever heard it used by anyone else.

Is it an original expression of hers or some little used term more than a generation ago? I have been thinking about her the last few days because of some posts I made in another thread.

First post, 17, was just a joke: "Eat, drink and make Mary, (or Jane)"
Mary was her name, and I often did as we lived together. But then, under questioning my posts became more serious. See last at:

http://www.sciforums.com/showpost.php?p=2518808&postcount=32
 
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Billy T said:
"Salty dog" - I was called that in a friendly way by female fellow graduate student I lived with for nearly two years. I never knew exactly what it meant nor have I ever heard it used by anyone else. Is it an original expression of hers or some little used term more than a generation ago?
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"Sea dog" is an old slang term for a sailor, and "salty dog" is an experienced sailor: one who's been through a lot of salt. In wartime it was also extended to Marines who had spent a lot of time on Navy ships. Since men who spend months at sea get really horny, "salty dog" came to mean any man with an exceptional libido.
 
I recently learned that in England ciggarrettes are called "fags". I felt very stupid because of the situation to which I found this out. Therefore, I thought it was note worthy for this forum. We all know how it is used in one sense of the word i.e. referring to a homosexual. Now I know it can also mean cigg.
 
staciet said:
I recently learned that in England cigarettes are called "fags". I felt very stupid because of the situation to which I found this out. Therefore, I thought it was noteworthy for this forum. We all know how it is used in one sense of the word i.e. referring to a homosexual. Now I know it can also mean cig.
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It was also used in that sense in the USA back in my day, although it's out of fashion now. It comes from "fag end," slang for a cigarette butt, specialized from a slang term for something droopy, generalized from the sagging end of a bolt of cloth, from Middle English "fagge," meaning a broken thread.

"Faggot," for a gay man, was rude slang for a woman in the USA 100 years ago. Its origin is intertwined with "fagot," a bundle of sticks. Some folk-etymologies trace it to British boarding schools, where the older boys supposedly made the younger ones carry the firewood... and do other things for them. We may never know for certain.

Since "fag" for "cigarette" seems to have originated in England and "faggot/fag" for "homosexual" seems to have originated in America (despite the boarding school legend), the word retains its primary meaning in each country, but both are recognized in both places.
 
Fraggle Rocker said:
"Faggot," for a gay man, was rude slang for a woman in the USA 100 years ago. Its origin is intertwined with "fagot," a bundle of sticks.
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Have you read Good Omens by Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman?
There's an amusing sequence where a modern-day Witchfinder Corporal (don't ask - it's a long story) gets into a conversation with a US airman who's standing guard at the gate of a US airbase in England:-
Witchfinder Corporal: "Do you have any faggots?"
US airman: "Certainly not! Why do want to know?"
WFC: "I have to build a fire and burn them."
US airman: "Right on! And they told me you Brits were soft."

It only works if you're aware of both meanings...
Oh yeah, and over here a faggot is also a large meatball.

The book also includes the story of Agnes Nutter, a genuine witch who could foresee the future. And, seeing the future, she knew when the mob would arrive to burn her at the stake. Which was the reason she packed 80 pounds of gunpowder and 40 pounds of roofing nails into her petticoats.
Revenge, even posthumously, is sweet. :D
 
Dywyddyr said:
Oh yeah, and over here a faggot is also a large meatball.
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Hmm. We recently had a lengthy discussion on one of the other boards about eating offal. We eat beef liver in America, traditional sausages are cased in intestine, and chicken giblets are often made into gravy. Other organ meat and byproducts show up in ethnic cuisine, such as the Chinese duck feet and pig ears. The rumors about fast food chains using tissue that we consider dog food never turn out to be true.
 
jodhpurs:

Fitted riding breeches, loose above the knees, but tight from knee to ankle

Named for the place of origin, Jodhpur, a former state in northwestern India - Jodhpur also called Marwar was founded in 1459 by Rao Jodha and was named for him.

Currently, its location is in the state of Rajasthan in modern India.

Original jodhpurs:

maharajaofkotahandmahar.jpg


modern jodhpurs:

jodhpurs.jpg
 
S.A.M. said:
Named for the place of origin, Jodhpur, a former state in northwestern India - Jodhpur also called Marwar was founded in 1459 by Rao Jodha and was named for him.
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We have the word doolally in British English, also from a location in India: Deolali.
Troops on postings there had little to do and so ended up er, somewhat less than balanced in outlook.
Doolally is a synonym for eccentric.

Of course if you want words appropriated by we Brits from India I think we've got a fair few...
 
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