Nerds, geeks, dorks, and dweebs
There are some terms in every language that people all seem to use differently. In English, usually the first example I think of is ‘next weekend/Friday’ and ‘this weekend/Friday’. If I’m talking about the upcoming weekend/Friday (or other end of the week day), some people will use ‘next’ and some people will use ‘this’. Some people are even more confusing and use both, depending on where in the week you are, e.g. if you are closer to the end of the week, you use ‘this’, otherwise, ‘next’. I use ‘this’ for everything up to the upcoming weekend, and ‘next’ for everything in the following week, but not everybody agrees with me.
Another example is ‘geek’ vs ‘nerd’ (and other words that laypeople don’t really care about the difference between). To the learner, and the average English speaker, these phrases might be interchangeable. They all mean people who have varying levels of intelligence and obsession with fields that everyday people might not be concerned with, and varying levels of social ineptitude. To the average person, it might not matter which term you use to describe someone (although you might want to avoid them if you don’t want to offend people), but to someone who might be described as a geek, nerd, dork, or dweeb, the differences can be huge. Some nerds, for example, are quite proudly nerdy, but would be quite offended to be called dorks. Apparently, dorks only lack social skills, and might not even know anything about anything.
Here’s a helpful pie graph from Great White Snark (which satisfies my own inner nerd):
If you’re still interested, there’s also a Cat and Girl comic about it.
By the way, even usage amongst nerds and geeks varies, so don’t be worried if you still can’t get it right.
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Adrian Morgan said,
November 1, 2010 @ 11:00 am
This is a fiction. Unless one can demonstrate a difference by studying how people use the terms in the real world, then there is no difference between “geek” and “nerd”, simply a game some geeks/nerds like to play of pretending that there is, so that they can draw cool diagrams to illustrate it. I predict that any descriptive study would show that “geek” and “nerd” are completely interchangeable, and distinct from “dork” and “dweeb”, the latter two differing from each other only in intensity.
Individuals may perceive differences in connotation between the words (e.g. one might feel that a nerd is more motivated by academic ambition whereas a geek just wants to have fun, and pursuing knowledge is fun), but those are idiosyncratic, not universal. They are not technical terms and there is nothing to get right.
Wendy said,
November 1, 2010 @ 6:57 pm
Sorry if this came across as a definitive reference! I take these graphs about as seriously as anything on graphjam.com: a bit of fun with possibly some real life relevance.
Again, I think some people might disagree with you when you say there is no difference between ‘geek’ and ‘nerd’, but those people might have differing levels of obsession or expertise in things you don’t (or don’t care about).
In short, I mostly agree with you. However, differences in connotation between terms might not be universal, but in some cases can still lead to disagreements. It’s often good to know what other people (might) think, even if it doesn’t really affect you directly.