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alt title(s): Nerds 
He's a hottie
"You're not a nerd, you're just... coolness-challenged."
A Nerd is someone who... actually, it is easier to describe a nerd as what they are not. Not smooth, not handsome, not someone you would instantly describe as 'attractive'. Not, above all else, popular outside a very narrow grouping of fellow-nerds. Oftentimes, a walking, talking fashion-disaster. One definition of a nerd is someone who not only didn't attend his high school prom, but would be puzzled or even offended at the suggestion that he would want to. Most nerds portrayed in the media actually fail this test, but real-life nerd Joss Whedon passes.
The term gets conflated with geek fairly frequently, as it happens that a nerd can be fairly obsessive/informed about a particular topic.
The nerdiest nerd is a nerd who isn't even a geek.
One of the odd features of the nerd on TV is that they will be over-formally dressed (probably as a result of the Hollywood Dress Code;) usually, at least a plaid polo shirt and slacks. In fact, in real life, both nerds and geeks tend to dress more casually than the average person, because they usually don't care as much about clothes or appearances. (The hyper-formality is likely due to another stigma - that nerds let their parents dress them). There are some nerds whose clothes would fit the stereotype, though.
Many, if not most, nerds are so socially inept because they actively dislike company with Average Joes and not so much because they just don't know how to act.
Most people may have first heard this term from the Sit Com Happy Days, where it was Fonzie's pejorative of choice, but etymological studies have traced it back to 1951 Detroit; it was originally just a term for social ineptitude.
Note that, like with Geek, the definition of a nerd is not set in stone and can vary greatly depending on context. See also Geek, Asian And Nerdy, Black And Nerdy, Hollywood Nerd, Emo Teen. Contrast Nerdcore.
Examples:
- Square Pegs.
- Spencer from lonelygirl15 is a scientist who likes to wave a lightsaber around and claims he can't exercise because he suffers from nociception. All together: "What Up, Blogosphere!"
- In this
 Dinosaur Comics strip, T-Rex conflates nerds and geeks when he speculates that God's omniscience must make him the Ultimate Nerd.
- The Angry Video Game Nerd. And here, we speak about the character, not the actor James Rolfe, who actually got a life on his own. And even the Nerd character only has the look of nerds in the general, his popularity is immense. Just don't imitate his style in real life.
- Turn on G4TV and you're more than likely to find a bumper or two of several Nerdcore rappers rapping about things that ordinary people would find nerdy; e.g. Console Wars, computer hacking, hell, even just video gaming in general. The bumps appear to be a movement to turn "nerd" into a term of endearment and/or empowerment. The performers include YTCracker, MC Lars, and M.C. Frontalot, who looks a lot like the image at the top of this page.
- Ironically, the majority of G4's programing has nothing to do with what they claim is their intended demographic.
Film
- Napoleon Dynamite is pure nerd. No geek-ness at all, no skills, knowledge or, quite possibly, any understanding that there might be such things as skill and knowledge.
- Apart from funky dancing.
- And sweet nunchuck skills.
- He's pretty good with a bo staff.
- Shooting wolverines with a frickin' twelve gage
- This fact could explain his bad luck with the opposite sex, as girls only want guys with great skills.
- The movie series Revenge of the Nerds, which describe themselves as including the Nerd, the Geek and the Spazz as their heroes (not to mention the slob, in Booger's case).
- Back To The Future Part I: Marty's father, before Marty goes back to 1955 and while he's in 1955.
Literature
Live Action TV
- Freaks And Geeks featured nerds more than geeks, mostly because freaks and nerds don't rhyme.
- Owen Pronsky from Less Than Perfect is a classic example, complete with Nerd Glasses, social ineptness and overall weirdness. Also, he sells office supplies for a living.
Music
- Weird Al's White & Nerdy.
- They Might Be Giants, kings of the nerd rock genre, wrote a song called "The Mesopotamians", which portrays Sargon, Hammurabi, Ashurbanipal, and Gilgamesh as a cross between The Monkees and Gorillaz. It's an allegory of the Beatles ("I thought you crashed your car"), and that no one cares about them anymore... save the geeks.
Real Life
- In my experience, the definitions used to contrast Nerd with Geek usually imply that Nerds are just socially inept whereas Geeks have specialist knowledge and focus, esp. for IT. Sometimes Dork is used as the 'loser' category and Nerds are Academia Geeks (and who will dress over-formally). Both of these reflect what I've learnt that Nerd originated in on the US East Coast and became associated with established education, and Geek on the West Coast, so it became a positive term with the emergence of glitzy high-tech companies in that region.
- Trope Namer: The first recorded use of the word "nerd" was in the 1950 Dr. Seuss book If I Ran The Zoo (according to Wikipedia, although I remembered that it had supposedly first appeared in the Seuss book and merely consulted The Other Wiki to confirm that this book was indeed written before the previously stated origin of 1951). Note that Seuss's books often had nonsensical creatures, and this first "nerd" was one of them. The aforementioned 1951 Detroiters must've liked the word.
- It appears to be one of those Nonsense Words that was very popular in the late 40s thru early 60s (see also Shmoo) some of which got incorporated into 60s slang and the meaning evolved accordingly. If That Other Wiki is to be believed, "nerd" in 1951 Detroit originally just meant "square, whitebread".
- As this troper understands the differences, a dork is socially inept (e.g.: unable to relate to others, dresses poorly, etc), a nerd is socially inept but has extensive knowledge about a subject (but not necessarily a useful subject), while a geek may be less socially inept and has extensive knowledge about a useful (and probably profitable) subject.
- You have Geek and Nerd reversed, or at least the common usage seems to be that a Nerd has saleable skills, usually some form of Tech-Fu in the IT field, while a Geek can tell you all about pre-Crisis Captain Marvel comic books or recite the dialogue of every episode of the original Star Trek.
- Common usage varies from area to area, circle to circle, and from context to context. This Troper works in the Silicon Valley and, out here, geek is usually considered the complimentary term with nerd suggesting obsessive and narrow knowledge without any social grace. I've lived in other areas, though, where people were shocked when I called myself a geek because they thought I was saying something bad about myself and, even here, I've met people who would subscribe to the above description.
- This troper's favorite explanation: Nerds study a hell of a lot. Geeks study a hell of a lot about the wrong thing.
- Forget Kirk vs. Picard, probably the easiest way to get an Internet Backdraft going is to try to get people to discuss the usage of the term "geek" versus "nerd" - doubly so once someone brings up that they find a particular one insulting but the other as a badge of pride. About the only thing that can be agreed upon is that nobody likes it when either is used as an obvious perjorative.
- This Troper (A nerd) understood from his own region (Suburbs of Chicago) this definition of terms:
- Geek: Very talented in his own knowledge, but socially inept as a result of thinking that everyone else is just as interested in their hobbies as they are (Which leads to the archetypical scoffing and laughing).
- Nerd: Substantially less talented in their knowledge base than Geeks, but in complete control of how socially accepted they are. Most nerds have impressive understandings of their knowledge base, but just don't stack up when compared to a geniune geek.
- Dork: Worst of both worlds. Don't know anything and are socially awkward.
- A nerd being called a geek was an insult, saying that essentially they were obsessive and blind; Calling a geek a nerd is insulting to their intelligence. Dorks are veritable butt monkeys to either side, although dork also makes a good insult at the expense of the upper tier of the social hierarchy (outside of nerds/geeks/dorks) when someone (A jock or cheerleader usually provides good fodder) proves themselves Too Dumb To Live. This troper suspects that this understanding is by and large inconsistent with other societies, though.
Web Comics
- Eric of Loserz. See here. He might still be a geek, though, and later manages to get a girlfriend and get laid. Wish fulfillment?.
Web Original
- When Terry of KateModern joins the Hymn of One, he becomes a cheerful, mild-mannered nerd, complete with a cardigan and, inexplicably, Nerd Glasses. In "Precious Blood" it is revealed that the nerd persona was all an act. One of the first things he does after being discovered is to get rid of the cardigan and the glasses - he can see just fine without them.
- "Bad Decision?", Chapter 2 of LG15: the resistance features "the sexy nineteen-year-old fact finder also known as... Research Nerd!" (actually Sarah with Nerd Glasses, a collared shirt and tie and her hair tied back).
Western Animation
- The Simpsons referenced the difference when Milhouse insists to Bart he's "Not a nerd. Nerds are smart."
- ...which is actually roughly the reverse of the definitions being used here, although "smart" is an attribute commonly associated with nerds.
- There was an episode where Homer went to college and yelled "NNNEEEERRRRD!" at a passing student.
- Well, in the Show Within A Show, School of Hard Knockers, "Nerd" was apparently a catch-all to describe anyone who wasn't a Jock. Basically, taking the Saved By The Bell viewpoint and then dumbing it down to Homer's level.
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