Nerd

I am not surprised to learn (from Wikipedia) that the word nerd first appeared in a book by Dr. Seuss (pseudonym of children's author and illustrator, Theodor Seuss Geisel, 1904-1991). The book was If I Ran the Zoo, published in 1950, one of my favorites then and now.

Narrator Gerald McGrew claims that he would collect "a Nerkle, a Nerd, and a Seersucker too" for his imaginary zoo. Nerd, like Nerkle, is a perfect Dr. Seuss word.

Along the way, the word has become associated with a person who is single-minded, or perhaps now we would say obsessive, about an intellectual pursuit, and who is passionate about that pursuit, but not necessarily comfortable socially. So also introverted or reclusive.

When I claim to be a word nerd, I mean it! When I wrote papers in college (by hand, I might add, because we had typewriters, not computers, and I could not write on a typewriter) I stacked exactly five sheets of paper on my desk, I began writing, I tossed the top sheet I had written on, because the writing was messy or crooked or wrong-headed, added the next fifth sheet, looked up the word I wanted to use next in the dictionary so that I could be sure it was the right word and I was using it correctly, and so on to the end of the first paragraph. There were a lot of crumpled-up first pages in my dorm wastebasket.

I've come a long way in the obsessive department, but, if you ask me what I am thinking about at any given time, it is likely to be a word.