NO There is a Dweeb, Dork, knurd, preep, proo, nerkle, mokkel & more Geek Synonyms.
Geek and Nerd were ok, but variations to the word geek with similar or dissimilar meaning were at times unnecessary, and were real shit! Thanks to the Geek-Gods that the Geek Synonyms like Dweeb, Dork, knurd, preep, proo, nerkle, nerts, Snerd, mokkel, murkha, etc., didn’t achieve a trendier and more complimentary status than Geek or Nerd. Or did they? wait!
Did you ever hear someone self-proclaiming themselves as a proud “computer dork” or a “content dweeb”? If not, then yeah they aren’t trending, but the self-touting “content geek,” and “book nerds” are, God has been great for providing us with these many Geek Synonyms.
Where did these ‘Geek Variations’ come from?
Fascinatingly, these variations of Geek, even ‘Nerd’ were all invented, by various personalities. The main accused here is Dr Seuss. Anyways, Who is this Seuss?
So my dear Geeks and Nerds (assuming no dorks and mokkels are present), Theodor Seuss “Ted” Geisel was an American children’s author, political cartoonist, illustrator, poet, animator, screenwriter, and filmmaker. His original name is Theodor Geisel, born on March 2, 1904, and lived happily till September 24, 1991. Ted is best known for his writings and illustrating works of more than 60 books under the pen name ‘Doctor Seuss’ abbreviated ‘Dr Seuss.’ Must have been a record holder of a sort.
His best-acknowledged works were all best-selling children’s books of all time. His books were translated into more than 20 languages and over 600 million copies were sold, by the time of his death. Quite a Man ha! Cheers to him!
So where were we? Hmm! the berserk creation legends we were talking about… The Variations to the words Geek and Nerd, the Geek Synonyms.
Dweeb
This word is the youngest of the four, found in the 1960s. The association of this word is with unintelligence stem, by the possibility that the word must be a fusion of dwarf and feeble, a slang for “feeble-minded person”.
This doesn’t mean that dwarves are unintelligent. But to draw an explanation for dweeb’s existence, one may assume that Dr. Suess must have come up with the word to describe a dimwit. Implying them as physically dwarf and feeble-minded, the ones with short brain span.
In a book, ‘The Lizzard of Ozz’, by Dr Rufus T. Dingleberry, released in 2012, further establishes dweeb’s dimwitted character. In there, he claims the result as the dweeb’s parents’ obsession with certain mind-altering substances.
Dork
Dork is a silly, out-of-touch person who tends to look odd or behave ridiculously around others.
The origin theories of dork are that it’s an alteration of d*ck, which would make sense for dork’s initial, phallic meaning. Dork also may be related to dirk, a slang term for “penis” dating back to the late 1700s.
One of the earliest recorded instances comes from the 1961 novel Valhalla by Jere Peacock, where dork had a fancy-seeming spelling- “You satisfy many women with that dorque?”
But, the term ‘Dork’ went on to imply people who do ridiculous things. In slang, it’s pretty common, right? to equate a ‘stupid’ to a reserved body part.
Nerd
A studious, intellectual, of a particular topic of interest. Nerds are “achievement” oriented, and focus their efforts on acquiring knowledge through various means while ignoring the trivial social scene.
The origins of nerds are hazy. The most frequently cited story is that Dr Seuss coined the word in his 1950 children’s book ‘If I Ran the Zoo’, as the name of a bizarre-looking creature. Suess also introduced nerd’s friends, “preep,” “proo,” and “nerkle” in the same book. Knurd on the other hand, is a slang derived from word ‘Drunk’ which pronounces as Nerd.
The related words of nerd are nerdy and nerdish. Soon after, nerd became a teen fav slang for eccentric, unpopular and studious kids.
A year later, Newsweek reported on nerd’s popularity with youth of the day “… someone who once would be called a drip or a square is now, regrettably, a nerd.”
Mokkel, Murkha, budbak :
These are all desi Indian terms. O yeah! We Indians too have a fair share of words, derived from here and there. Although the meaning for all of them (mokkel, murkha, budbak) is the same- a fool or silly person, but are still in use as a term for abuse or bullying.
In all the cases, it seems that intelligence, mood and social skills had played a big part in a lot of these definitions. Isn’t it?
So when the world was out of slang to describe people they didn’t understand, thereby desperately seeking something new and fresh, boom! came Dr Seuss, and gave them a few. The Slang-slinger teens, who probably weren’t reading Seuss too picked up these words and used it to an extent that it became a national story, in a matter of a year. But, why not “nerkle”?
Why Nerd is a hit like Geek not Mokkel?
Etymologists think a nerd is a hit because it has combinations of influence, in addition to Dr Seuss. Just like a long-running joke of spelling drunk backwards- knurd, implying studious people who don’t drink or party or a 1930s slang term for nuts “nerts”; and a ventriloquist dummy popular in the ‘40s named Mortimer Snerd. All of these combinations have a pronunciation similar to ‘Nerd’, so it must have got retained.
Whatever one says, the term Nerd will always be a gift to humanity from Dr Seuss. But it got to have been around before him, certainly, the Doc made it more popular.
Then the Computer culture also helped nerd take flight, although it wasn’t explicitly associated with technology, geek was. Because technology is so important in the Digital Age, so are geeks! Know about the Famous Geek Personalities?
The term geek is often used interchangeably with the term nerd. Nerd despite being less cool, succeeded by the geek, has achieved a trendier and more complimentary status than the dorks, mokkels and dweeb. From the origin, nerd seems to operate like the geek in that you can preface nerd, with just about any subject, in which you claim to have some sincere interest and expertise. Know the types of Geek?
Actually, in this modern world, Geeks and Nerds- they aren’t two distinct personalities but are different aspects of a personality. But does it suffice? Know the differences stated by many, in our next,
Geek and Nerd: The difference. ( Geek Vs Nerd )
References– Dictionary
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