"'Nerd' is a term invented by Dr. Seuss in 'If I ran [into] the zoo' in 1950, where it represented a small comically angry-looking and unpleasant humanoid creature - 'And then, just to show them, I'll sail to Ka-Troo And Bring Back an It-Kutch a Preep and a Proo a Nerkle a Nerd and a Seersucker, too!' Initially popularised in the 1970s as a reference to uninteresting persons, as the information technology revolution turned playful hippies into serious businessmen, later films such as 'Revenge of the Nerds' [1984] granted them intelligence as bespectacled, but unathletic maths student wizards (in opposition to the athletic and sportive jovial 'jock') who turn the world upside down with their wizardry." (Houtman & Zeitlyn 1996: 2, fn 1 -- hyperlinks added by me)

HOUTMAN, GUSTAAF AND DAVID ZEITLYN. 1996. Information technology and anthropology, Anthropology Today 12(3): 1-3.

... Comment