A Geek’s Word on ... Geeks

Now that I am an accomplished journalist (having written and published three whole articles in my local paper) I’d like to share something with you. You see, one of my favorite things about the English language is that it’s alive. The meanings of English words are always changing and evolving on a near-global scale, which can be both exciting and confusing. For example, the word “pimp” used to be an extremely offensive word with only one crude meaning, but now it can also be used as a verb to describe the unorthodox customization of an automobile, such as to “pimp someone’s ride”. It amazes me that people can transform an R-rated word into a G-rated word over time. In fact, we’ve actually done this before with the word “geek”.

What I’d like to do in this article is discuss the previous meanings of the word “geek”, and then move on to what I believe the current meaning of the word is. I had a lot of fun researching this unique word, and I think you might be surprised, or at least entertained, by my findings and observations.

Believe it or not, this word can be traced all the way back to the 16th century German word “geck”, which referred to a freak or a simpleton. In other words, this was not the nicest thing you could say about someone. Shakespeare brought the word into the English language with one of his lesser-known plays, “Twelfth Night”, where the word is used by a prisoner to insult those who kept him imprisoned. Needless to say, this was a rocky start for the word this entire page of the Ardmoreite is named after.

Centuries later, “geck” became “geek”, probably due to a typo that never got corrected, in American literature in the 1800’s. The word started losing some of its sting at this point, and was conservatively used to refer to someone’s intentional or unintentional foolishness. So, just to review, geeks were once freaks, and at this point in history we’ve been upgraded to just plain fools. I suppose that’s slightly better, but the word had a long way to go from there.

Unfortunately, the word took another nosedive toward the negative in the early 20th century. “Geek shows”, a slang term for freak shows, started popping up in carnivals and circuses all across America, and everyone started using the term “geek” to refer to maniacs who dressed in rags or colorful costumes (depending on what the audience preferred) and bit the heads off of live chickens for fun and profit. Lucky for them, PETA didn’t exist at the time, and in what seemed like an instant the word “geek” became even more insulting than it was originally. First we were freaks, then fools, and now we’re psychopaths?! Thanks a lot, Merriam-Webster.

A few decades passed, and all I can say at this point is thank goodness for modern technology! In the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s, “geek” transformed once again, this time into a derogatory term for people who were good with computers, but not so good in social situations (in other words, people like me). And at this point in history, an incredible thing happened. Instead of being offended by the word, as all others had been in centuries past, we took the word “geek” from our accusers and wore it as a badge of honor. After all, being called a geek meant we were brilliant, unique individuals that didn’t waste our time with the popular crowd, and we were proud of that. Soon, geek-founded companies like Microsoft, Apple, and the aptly-named tech support company “Geek Squad” started raking in the dough, and all of a sudden the word “geek”—a word that spent most of its life as an insult—became synonymous with intelligence, wealth, and respect.

In fact, even as I type this article the word “geek” is continuing to evolve into an even greater compliment. No longer does it refer to only those who can fix computers. Now it’s used to describe anyone who is particularly devoted to one or more specific interests. Can you take apart a vehicle and put it back together in your sleep? Congratulations, you are a car geek. Perhaps you have thousands of recipes on your kitchen counter tops, perfectly organized, and you try new ones out on your family all the time? That makes you a cooking geek, and you should be proud of yourself. Maybe you have a massive CD collection, and you can come up with the name of any band from just the sound of the lead singer’s voice? Kudos to you, music geek. Or maybe you’re more like me, and you can argue into the night with your friends about how the comic book Earth X is entirely too complicated (seriously, it made DC’s “Crisis on Infinite Earths” seem like the Cat in the Hat). If so, then you’re a comic book geek, and there’s nothing wrong with that.

So there you have it. To the best of my ability, and with the help of the Ardmore Public Library and the World Wide Web, I’ve done my best to show the world that while “geek” was once a four-letter word, it now applies to pretty much all of us in different ways. In fact, you might say we’re doing quite well in this “geek nation” of ours.