nerd
The origin and history of nerd.
Etymology
Origin uncertain — first recorded in 1951 as US student slang. The word appeared a year earlier in Dr. Seuss's If I Ran the Zoo as the name of a fictional creature, which may have helped popularize it.
Class of 1951
nerd first entered the language around 1951. Other words from the same year:
See the full Class of 1951 →