What's the Difference?

What's the difference between a Geek, a Nerd, and Dork? Is it interest in certain academic subjects? Is it extracurricular activities? Do you just not care at all? Well, too bad. I'm going to talk about it anyways. I bring it up because of a "What's the Difference?" article on Mental floss. (one of my favorite magazines!) The article explained what the difference is according to history and the origins of the word. I've always considered myself a proud nerd. I wear it like a badge of honor. A badge that says "I'm not that cool ,but I'm cool with it." I think. Anyhow, it's pretty interesting. Here's what mental Floss says about where the words come from:

GEEK

Etymological Theory 1: Sometime in the early 19th century, the Scottish word geck, meaning “fool,” changed to geek and began being used to describe a certain kind of carnival performer. Geeks specialized in eating live animals, including biting the heads off live chickens.

Theory 2: Real etymology geeks trace the word geck all the way back to Shakespeare—see, for instance, “the most notorious geck” in Act V of Twelfth Night—and claim that we have the first great literature geek to blame for the word.

NERD

The first known appearance of the word is in Dr. Seuss’s 1950 If I Ran the Zoo, in which a character wants to collect “A Nerkle a Nerd and a Seersucker, too!” The theory goes that kids liked the ring of the word so much, they started using it derogatorily.

Theory 2: Some at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute claim that they coined the word knurd in the ’50s to describe kids who studied all the time (knurd being drunk spelled backward)

DORK

This time, there’s only one theory: The word dork originally meant “penis.” (Specifically, human penis.) Popularized in the ’60s, dork was probably derived from dirk, a penile name that was widely used until the short version of Richard became ubiquitous.

Read the entire article here:

http://www.mentalfloss.com/difference/geek-vs-nerd-vs-dork/