Define and distinquish: Geeks, Nerds, Dorks

[CarlZog]

Alright, I've never really understood these terms and it seems like everybody uses them differently. So your assignment is to define Geek, Nerd and Dork, and distinquish each from the others.

Carl

P.S. I should point out that this post is motivated by a funny party conversation with someone Saturday about the difference between these terms. The person talking was a respected physician at a New York teaching hospital with no interests related to gaming, SF, fantasy, etc., and she considered herself a nerd for academic reasons. Those like us with Enworld-syle interests she called geeks. And dorks, she said, was a derogatory term with no inherent overlap to the others.

 

[BiggusGeekus]

Geeks are awesome and sexy!

The rest suk.

 

[Angcuru]

Geek - A person who is enthusiatic about an intellectual/technological field and is often disliked.

Dork - Combination of nerd and geek.

Nerd - An unstylish, unattractive, and/or socially inept person.

 

[KidCthulhu]

Well, technically geeks bite the heads off live chickens and display freakish behavior in sideshows. But who wants to bring the dictionary into this?

 

[Cthulhu's Librarian]

According to www.m-w.com

One entry found for dork.
Main Entry: dork
Pronunciation: 'dork
Function: noun
Etymology: perhaps alteration of dick


If you've ever watched the movie Heavy Metal, the one portion where the geek gets set to another world and he's a barbarian (voiced by John Candy), he mentions that even his dork has gotten bigger.

 

[Raging Epistaxis]

Personal usage of these terms.

Geek: someone who has an excessive interest in a relatively esoteric/'unpopular' field, especially technology related. But, as KidC pointed out, has an entirely different historical meaning in the context of sideshows. (So says the haunted house geek in me. )

Nerd: someone who is relatively inept in social situations.

Dork. someone who does foolish things

 

[tarchon]

Ask a dork wonk.

 

[diaglo]

a dork is a penis

geek is the sideshow guy biting the heads off chickens



a nerd is a candy.

 

[CarlZog]

Well, technically geeks bite the heads off live chickens and display freakish behavior in sideshows. But who wants to bring the dictionary into this?

Actually, several people at the party where this came up were quick to point that out, which I found a little surprising; this was a fairly mellow group of mostly crunchy environmental/academic types -- not exactly a Jim Rose crowd.

Carl

 

[der_kluge]

I would define them not unlike your friend:

geek - us. People into obscure, non-mainstream activities. See also Otaku.

nerd - an intellectual; socially misfit.

dork - derogatory; socially misfit, often clueless.