Editing Nerd (section)

==Etymology==
The first documented appearance of the word ''nerd'' is as the name of a creature in [[Dr. Seuss]]'s book ''[[If I Ran the Zoo]]'' (1950), in which the narrator Gerald McGrew claims that he would collect "a Nerkle, a Nerd, and a [[Seersucker]] too" for his imaginary zoo.<ref name=webster/><ref name="English Language 1212">American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Third Edition, p. 1212, Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston – New York – London, 1992.</ref><ref>[[Dr. Seuss|Geisel, Theodor Seuss]], ''[[If I Ran the Zoo]]'', p. 47, Random House Books for Young Readers. New York, 1950.</ref> The [[slang]] meaning of the term dates to 1951.<ref name="Harper">{{OEtymD|nerd}}</ref> That year, ''[[Newsweek]]'' magazine reported on its popular use as a synonym for ''[[wikt:drip#Noun|drip]]'' or ''[[square (slang)|square]]'' in [[Detroit, Michigan]].<ref>''[[Newsweek]]'' [https://books.google.com/books?id=6oYoAQAAMAAJ&q=%22regrettably+,+a+nerd+%22 'Jelly Tot, Square Bear-Man!'] (1951-10-8), p. 28</ref> By the early 1960s, usage of the term had spread throughout the United States, and even as far as Scotland.<ref>Gregory J. Marsh in Special Collections at the [[Swarthmore College]] library as reported in [http://www3.iath.virginia.edu/lists_archive/Humanist/v04/0074.html Humanist Discussion Group] {{webarchive|url= https://web.archive.org/web/20080131223744/http://www3.iath.virginia.edu/lists_archive/Humanist/v04/0074.html |date=2008-01-31 }} (1990-6-28) Vol. 4, No. 0235.</ref><ref>Glasgow, Scotland, ''Sunday Mail'' (1957-02-10).</ref> At some point, the word took on connotations of bookishness and social ineptitude.<ref name="English Language 1212"/>

An alternate spelling,<ref>''The many spellings of Nurd'', Fall 1970 (revised [http://polyglotinc.blogspot.com/2015/07/the-many-spellings-of-nurd-or-is-it-nerd.html online] 2015)</ref> as ''nurd'' or ''gnurd'', also began to appear in the mid-1960s, or early 1970s.<ref>''Current Slang: A Quarterly Glossary of Slang Expressions Currently In Use'' (1971). Vol. V, No. 4, Spring 1971, p. 17</ref> Author [[Philip K. Dick]] claimed to have coined the "nurd" spelling in 1973, but its first recorded use appeared in a 1965 student publication at [[Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute]] (RPI).<ref>Personal Correspondence (1973-9-4) reported on [http://www.eldacur.com/~brons/NerdCorner/NerdMail.html#PKDick the web]</ref><ref>RPI ''Bachelor'' (1965), V14 #1</ref> [[Oral tradition]] there holds that the word is derived from ''knurd'' (''[[drunk]]'' spelled backwards), which was used to describe people who studied rather than partied. The term ''gnurd'' (spelled with the "g") was in use at the [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]] (MIT) by the year 1965.<ref>''More Mathematical People'' (D.J. Albers, J.L. Alexanderson and C. Reid), p. 105 (1990). Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich.</ref> The term "nurd" was also in use at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as early as 1971.<ref>{{Citation |url=http://tech.mit.edu/V90/PDF/V90-N57.pdf |work=The Daily Reamer, Volume 69, No. 20 |page=6 |date=February 3, 1971 |title=Johnson honors Nurd for saving Institute |publisher=Massachusetts Institute of Technology |postscript=. |access-date=14 May 2014 |archive-date=22 October 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201022020354/http://tech.mit.edu/V90/PDF/V90-N57.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref>

According to ''[[Online Etymology Dictionary]]'', the word is an alteration of the 1940s term "''nert''" (meaning "stupid or crazy person"), which is in itself an alteration of "[[wikt:nut|nut]]" (nutcase).{{refn|name=Harper}}

The term was popularized in the 1970s by its heavy use in the [[sitcom]] ''[[Happy Days]]''.<ref>{{Citation
| first1 = David
| last1 = Fantle
| first2 = Tom
| last2 = Johnson
| title = Reel to Real: 25 Years of Celebrity Interviews
| publisher = Badger Books Inc.
|date=November 2003
| chapter = "Nerd" is the Word: Henry Winkler, August 1981
| pages = 239–242
}}</ref>  On January 28, 1978, recurring characters [[The Nerds]] premiered on Saturday Night Live.  The term was further popularized in the 1984 film ''[[Revenge of the Nerds]]''.