Etymology

• 1951, U.S. student slang, probably an alteration of . See references below.
• The same word capitalized with appeared in 1950 in Dr. Seuss’s If I Ran the Zoo as the name of an imaginary animal:

  And then, just to show them, I’ll sail to Katroo / And bring back an It-Kutch, a Preep and a Proo, / A Nerkle, a Nerd and a Seersucker too!

• Various unlikely folk etymologies and less likely backronym speculations also exist.

Noun

1. A person who, although having good technical or scientific skills, is introspective and generally introverted.
2. }

Synonyms

• See also Wikisaurus:dork