Which term correctly identifies those who enjoy and are involved with programming and technology, geek or nerd?
Learn English – Which term correctly identifies those who enjoy programming/technology: “geek” or “nerd”
nounsterminologyword-choice
nounsterminologyword-choice
Which term correctly identifies those who enjoy and are involved with programming and technology, geek or nerd?
Best Answer
The most probable term would be "geek", as in "computer geek" (roughly "computer whiz").
(not the US geek from fifty years ago, as the lowest form of circus performer, who did horrible, demeaning things).
Even though a geek is not necessarily smart or into computers, but can be in general a "weird person", the only usage of geek I know in French culture is related to computer.
This thread mentions:
One (non-official) difference between nerd and geek (in the computer field) could also be in term of general activity:
Eg. a nerd creates video games, a geek plays the video games.
But those two terms certainly cannot be limited to this simple interpretation.
That being said, I thought the remark from John Hodgman was quite accurate:
Nicely illustrated by phdcomics: