| Term “Nerd” came into prominence in the middle of 1960s with reference to typical intellectual-esoteric person with undeveloped social habits, who usually becomes an object of ridicule. Initiator of the given term was philosopher Mr. Timothy Charles Paul Fuler. For the first time “Nerd” was mentioned in the children’s book “If I had a zoo park” by American writer Dr. Suez, where strange new word mentioned was invented by the author for one of the funny animals. Other theories of the word’s origin include a variation on Mortimer Snerd – name of Edgar Bergen’s ventriloquist dummy. The third version says that the word originated from one of the companies, in which the engineers wore pocket protectors (for pencils and pens) with the acronym “N.E.R.D” printed on the pocket protectors. And at last, the last version: word originates from English "drunk", which is spelled as “knurd” (drunk spelled backwards). This word was used to describe those who studied rather than partied.
Prevalent character of the "Nerd", coming across in media and cartoon films is that of a young man in spectacles with black horny frame (preferably broken and ears, braided with tape), often having nonstandard complexion – incredibly thin or on the contrary, excessive obese.
On the whole, “Nerd” is differentiated by mismatch in clothing, external appearance and behavior. Things, he wears, often do not match with the time of the year, situations, do not match with each other; and the thoughts can be some where far from the body – for example, in a party, such a person will not think about the drink, he needs to take or how to impress a girl but instead he thinks about how to combine two new programs or how the social structure of mankind changes when we all start flying to cosmos.
Accordingly, phenomenon such as “Nerd ness” also exists. Nerd ness is the state of soul and due establishment of the brain. Typical "Nerd", as a rule, is socially isolated & makes relations with very difficulty. Exemptions are subjects of technical and scientific nature. In connection with this, an assumption cropped up that similar persons, should be suffering from obvious mental disorder syndrome.
Traditionally "Nerd" is an extraordinarily intelligent but lonely and asocial person, who leads life acquiring the knowledge of scientific nature. Well versed with computer technologies, he quite often becomes hacker. Beginning from second half of 1990s, young clever boys proclaimed the word “nerd” as a symbol of pride. They started using the term as approving for the characteristics of any person, whose main interest is in technical progress and its conception. In this case, social inadaptability is just an associated component of his nature.
Strange though, but many of the successful and the well-off persons in the past can be brought under these two types. For example, Linus Torvalds (creator of operating system Linux), popular Bill Gates (Head of Microsoft Corporation) and Steven Jobs (Head of Apple Inc. ) in their years as students. Many believe that their course of life was in straight line through the prism "Nerd ness". In specified cases, nonstandard ness (irregularity) got good impulse in future life.
As a result, term "Nerd ness" acquires image impact. Thus, fairly popular computer-news website Slashdot uses the tagline: "News for “Nerds”. Stuff that matters". ”Nerdiness” may look awkward but claims for innovative existence in technical sphere. And even a boundary exists in program matrix!
Society "Nerds” still remains scattered and culture is unrecognized. In fact, to be ranked amongst the selected “nerds”, it is necessary to accept belongingness and affiliation. However, here exists other extremity – popularization, as a result of which, simplified version of “nerdy” shall be highlighted in the masses. |
To a great surprise of her fans, pop singer Shakira took a break from her tours to study at the University of California, Los Angeles, this summer.
Professor Robert Cleve who teaches history at the UCLA, said Shakira looked like an ordinary student and got good grades. In fact, Cleve did not know she was a celebrity and was surprised to learn she was a famous singer.
