According to the Net, a Word Nerd is:
- Someone who enjoys learning new words.
- Someone who, when confronted by an unfamiliar word while reading, looks up the definition.
- Someone who may keep a list of favorite words.
- Someone who is fascinated by the nuances of language, especially the history of words and the shades of difference in meaning between similar words.
This is SO me! (Although I would have denied it fiercely in High School – extremely uncool …) I love words like perambulator, finnimbrun and Mungo. It makes my fingers itch for the dictionary and makes me wish that I came up with those first.
I am green with envy at J.K. Rowling’s ability to make up new words and use them so seamlessly in her books.
Quidditch, muggle, Voldemort. Whomping willow and legilimancy. Knuts, quaffle and squib.
Doesn’t that sound like a poem, or a song?
According to Jim Burrows, the first documented use of the word Nerd is in the 1950 Dr. Seuss story, If I Ran the Zoo1, in which a boy named Gerald McGrew made a large number of delightfully extravagant claims as to what he would do, if he were in charge at the zoo.
There are also gamer nerds, techie nerds, internet nerds and comic book nerds. There is even a page dedicated to ‘How to be a Nerd’, although I disagree with the dress code stipulated – polo shirts are just not my thing …
Viva the Age of the Nerd!
Africa to Asia 