LinuxSA Mailing list archives

  From: Brian Astill <brian.astill@flinders.edu.au>
  To  : Tim Ansell <ansell@chariot.net.au>
  Date: Thu, 23 Sep 1999 10:52:06 +0900

Re: Geek or Nerd?

At 10:28 PM 22/8/99 +0930, you wrote:
>For a school project i have to find out what people definition are of
>some english words, i have chosen the words "geek" and "nerd". Since
>most of us on the list would have been called on of the above sometime
>in there life i was wondering what where you definitions of the above.

Tim,
You have NOT been asked to discover the location and meaning of these words
so you can stay in your comfortable chair and lazily ask someone else if
they know.  BTW, how will you check that the info you obtain here is accurate?

You HAVE been set this project so you can find out how to discover this and
other similar information ACCURATELY and FOR YOURSELF.

CLUE: Contact your local library (visit personally if at all possible) and
ask them NOT for the answers, but how you can find out.
SUGGESTION: These words are quite new.  Find out which sources record them
'officially' earliest.  Do those sources which define geek and nerd all use
the same definitions, or are there variations?  Can you determine whether
those differences are due to time, or just to different interpretations?

If you do as I suggest, you will learn a great deal - and NOT just about
geek and nerd - and your school will be proud of you (if they aren't already).

Brian

Brian Astill,  Visiting Research Fellow
Flinders University Institute of International Education

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