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No one is quite sure exactly where the word "nerd" came from. There was an earlier word "nert", meaning "stupid or crazy person", that was a variant on the word "nut," and this may have mutated further into"nerd."

Other speculations on the origin include:

  • Mortimer Snerd, Edgar Bergen's dummy
  • Knurd, drunk spelled backward, referring to people who would rather study than party
  • Northern Electric Research and Development laboratories (most etymologies involving acronyms are simply false, but "nerd" didn't appear until the mid-20th century... late enough for the acronym theory to be at least semi-plausible)
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14y ago

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