nerd [M20th] Originally an American term, nerd in the sense of ‘boring, unfashionable person’ was first recorded in 1951. The word itself appeared the previous year in If I Ran the Zoo by Dr Seuss, who seems to have invented it: ‘I’ll sail to Ka-Tro / And Bring Back an It-Kutch, a Preep and a Proo / A Nerkle, a Nerd, and a Seersucker, too!’ Some think that this is the origin of nerd, but Dr Seuss used the word in nonsense verse as the name of a kind of animal, and there is no connection with the obsessive computer fan we are familiar with. However, the word was originally US military slang for a socially inept person and the Dr Seuss illustration shows a small, unkept, humanoid creature with a comically disapproving expression, so the illustration could be the inspiration. This is the best explanation that has been made. Dweeb [L20th] is used similarly and is also of uncertain origin, perhaps a blend of dwarf, feeble, and weed.