Geek

The word of the day is “geek”, which originates from the German Geck, meaning “fool” or “freak”. It appears in 18th century carnival slang to describe side show performers who were socially undesirable and so unskilled that the only thing they could do to attract an audience was bite the heads off of live animals.

By the mid 20th century the term shifted to describe someone who was socially inept but highly intelligent. In the late 20th century, we see the term reclaimed within the computer and internet boom as a badge of pride to describe experts, enthusiasts and tech-savvy individuals. We now affectionately use it to describe an expert or enthusiast obsessed with a hobby or intellectual pursuit.

In fact, this tech savvy definition is what lead me to look up “geek” in the first place. Describing my husband to a co-worker as a bit of a “geek”, left me wondering: was that a mean thing to say? Turns out it’s not.

Am I a geek? I might be turning into a bit of a word geek. Possibly a plant geek too. How exciting!

Are you a geek?