Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A person regarded as foolish, inept, or clumsy.
- noun A person who is single-minded or accomplished in scientific or technical pursuits but is felt to be socially inept.
- noun A carnival performer whose show consists of bizarre acts, such as biting the head off a live chicken.
- transitive verb To excite emotionally.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun A performer in a carnival, often presented as a wild man, who performs grotesquely disgusting acts, such as biting the head off a live chicken or snake.
- noun Any eccentric or strange person; an oddball; an eccentric.
- noun Informal A student who is socially inept and a misfit in his class, especially one who is an intellectual; a nerd; a dork.
- noun Informal An intellectually inclined person, especially one who is interested in scientific or technical subjects; ; -- originally a deprecatory and contemptuous term, but in the 1990's, with the increase in popularity of computers and the frequency of accumulation of great wealth by computer entrepreneurs, it has come to be used with noticeable frequency by technically competent people to refer to themselves, ironically and sometimes proudly.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun dated A carnival
performer specializing in bizarre and unappetizing behavior. - noun colloquial A
person who is intensely interested in a particularfield orhobby and usuallyasocial . Often used with anattributive noun . - noun colloquial, by extension An
expert in a technical field, particularly one having to do withcomputers . - noun colloquial The
subculture of geeks; anesoteric subject of interest that is marginal to the socialmainstream ; the philosophy, events, and physical artifacts of geeks. - noun colloquial An unfashionable or socially undesirable person.
- noun Australia, colloquial A
look . - verb colloquial To get high on cocaine.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a carnival performer who does disgusting acts
- noun a person with an unusual or odd personality
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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"It is not just the word geek, it is the word geek with orange and black coloration" that puts Newegg over the line, says a Best Buy spokeswoman.
Now That Everyone Wants to Be a Geek, Lawyers Have Been Called Miguel Bustillo 2011
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"It is not just the word geek, it is the word geek with orange and black coloration" that puts Newegg over the line, says a Best Buy spokeswoman.
Now That Everyone Wants to Be a Geek, Lawyers Have Been Called Miguel Bustillo 2011
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The one thing that is clear the moment you arrive at the Maker Faire is that the term 'geek' has gone mainstream.
Steve Rosenbaum: What Barack Obama Could Learn From Maker Faire Steve Rosenbaum 2011
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The term geek is characterized by extreme passion for, and expertise, in an unexpected specialization.
Shirky FTW 2006
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Hence, the term geek—the “fool” from five centuries back, later disdained in circuses as the lowest of the low—has become the badge worn proudly by the virtuosos of the Virtual Generation.
No Uncertain Terms William Safire 2003
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Hence, the term geek—the “fool” from five centuries back, later disdained in circuses as the lowest of the low—has become the badge worn proudly by the virtuosos of the Virtual Generation.
No Uncertain Terms William Safire 2003
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Hence, the term geek—the “fool” from five centuries back, later disdained in circuses as the lowest of the low—has become the badge worn proudly by the virtuosos of the Virtual Generation.
No Uncertain Terms William Safire 2003
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Hence, the term geek—the “fool” from five centuries back, later disdained in circuses as the lowest of the low—has become the badge worn proudly by the virtuosos of the Virtual Generation.
No Uncertain Terms William Safire 2003
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Personally I'm more of a science fiction kind of guy, some may prefer the term geek, but I don't think the Force would be with me if I suggested a photo shoot with Darth Vader and his Stormtroopers.
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And now being a geek is about to get even better, with the launch of THE GEEK'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY podcast, the indispensable news and talk show for geeks everywhere.
Tor.com's New Podcast Will Guide Geeks Through The Galaxy 2010
john commented on the word geek
You hand in your ticket
And you go watch the geek
Who immediately walks up to you
When he hears you speak
And says, "How does it feel
To be such a freak?"
And you say, "Impossible"
As he hands you a bone
- Bob Dylan, Ballad of a Thin Man
October 13, 2007
oroboros commented on the word geek
Geek evolution
(via SoG on twitter)
October 22, 2010
yarb commented on the word geek
"The geek was a thin man who wore a suit of long underwear dyed chocolate brown. The wig was black and looked like a mop, and the brown greasepaint on the emaciated face was streaked and smeared with the heat and rubbed off around the mouth."
- Nightmare Alley, William Lindsay Gresham
June 30, 2012