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Re: Call yourself a geek?

• From: Peter Flynn <peter@silmaril.ie>
• To: xml-dev@lists.xml.org
• Date: Tue, 2 Apr 2019 19:55:14 +0100

On 030 Nov 20192/04/2019 17:23, Stephen D Green wrote:

Surprising you don’t tend to hear politicians called geeks.

Very rare.

  "I have always found Roosevelt an amusing fellow,
   but I would not employ him,
   except for reasons of personal friendship,
   as a geek in a common carnival."

   (Murray Kempton)

"Tory" was originally a term of abuse (Irish = "brigand").

Peter

On Tuesday, 2 April 2019, Uche Ogbuji <uche@ogbuji.net> wrote:

Well yes "geek" and "nerd" were originally uncomplimentary terms.
Anyone who was actually called those words in their school
playgrounds knows that. The former was a comparison to circus geeks,
a common term for performers whose acts included seemingly gross or
foolish stunts such as hammering nails into their nostrils or eating
dangerous items.

It's very, very common for once uncomplimentary terms to transform
into neutral or positive descriptors. You could fill a book with
examples, and many have done.

--Uche


On Tue, Apr 2, 2019 at 3:30 AM Dave Pawson <dave.pawson@gmail.com> wrote:

Origin

Late 19th century: from the related English dialect word geck
‘fool’, of Germanic origin; related to Dutch gek ‘mad, silly’.

Live and learn.


-- Dave Pawson
XSLT XSL-FO FAQ.
Docbook FAQ.

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-- Uche Ogbuji http://uche.ogbuji.net <http://uche.ogbuji.net/>
Founding Partner, Zepheira http://zepheira.com <http://zepheira.com/>
Author, _Ndewo, Colorado_ http://uche.ogbuji.net/ndewo/
<http://uche.ogbuji.net/ndewo/>
Co-creator, co-host, Poetry Voice Podcast
http://poetryvoice.tumblr.com/ <http://poetryvoice.tumblr.com/>
http://uogbuji.tumblr.com/ http://www.linkedin.com/in/ucheogbuji
<http://www.linkedin.com/in/ucheogbuji> http://twitter.com/uogbuji



--
----
Stephen D Green

• Follow-Ups:
  • Re: Call yourself a geek?
    • From: "Liam R. E. Quin" <liam@fromoldbooks.org>
  • Re: Call yourself a geek?
    • From: John Cowan <johnwcowan@gmail.com>

• References:
  • Call yourself a geek?
    • From: Dave Pawson <dave.pawson@gmail.com>
  • Re: Call yourself a geek?
    • From: Uche Ogbuji <uche@ogbuji.net>
  • Re: Call yourself a geek?
    • From: Stephen D Green <stephengreenubl@gmail.com>