Saturday, April 25, 2009

an etymology of nerdglee

at a recent point in time, i believed i coined the term nerdglee in a drunken giggly conversation with sara.  after beginning this blog, i googled the term (that is the only measure of cultural significance today, right?) and found only 300 results, thus proving the rarity but not my colombian claim to discovery.

however, every entry with the term has it as two separate words.  i therefore stab my flag into the one wordified version.  indeed, when the word is spoken in its true state of emotion, it rolls into one syllable.  do what you will with nerds; have your way with glee, but nerdglee is mine. but i will never stop trying to spread her around.

as of today, this blog is the 5th result when the term is googled. google likes to think you meant to search for "nerdle" - which is either 1. the ADA's term for the correct amount of toothpaste you should use each time you brush; or 2. the gunk in the corner of your eye in the morning

1951, U.S. student slang, probably an alteration of 1940s slang nert "stupid or crazy person," itself an alteration of nut. The word turns up in a Dr. Seuss book from 1950 ("If I Ran the Zoo"), which may have contributed to its rise. Adjective nerdy is from 1978.

O.E. gliu "entertainment, mirth, jest," presumably from a P.Gmc. *gliujan but absent in other Gmc. languages except for the rare O.N.gly. In O.E., an entertainer was a gleuman. A poetic word in M.E., obsolete c.1500-c.1700, it somehow found its way back to currency late 18c. Glee club (1814) is from the secondary O.E. sense of "unaccompanied part-song," as a form of musical entertainment.

No comments:

Post a Comment