By Patti Meagher  |  Photos By Joseph Viles/The CW Network

nerd (nûrd) noun: an unstylish, unattractive, or socially inept person, especially one slavishly devoted to intellectual or academic pursuits, as in computer nerd

—Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, 11th edition

The word first appeared in 1950 with Dr. Seuss’s goofy imaginary creature, the “nerd,” in If I Ran the Zoo. Many subsequent variants include the alternate spelling nurd, said to have originated at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute when knurd (drunk spelled backwards) was used to describe teetotaling students who spent their night lives in the library. Perhaps most visually evocative is the theory that the word originated at Northern Electric Research and Development in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, where the acronym was emblazoned on pocket protectors of the engineers who worked there.

With such a rich and lore-laden history, it’s no surprise that the word evokes a wide range of reactions. Despite the pejorative connotations, nerd pride runs high in certain circles. MIT sells a 14-karat gold “Nerd Pride” pendant, Spain celebrates “Nerd Pride Day” on May 25, and a new popular music genre called nerdcore hip hop or geeksta rap are just a few examples. Berkeley engineers also have strong feelings about the word, as evidenced by a recent exchange of letters in the San Francisco Chronicle.

It started with a March 17 story about a robotics tournament for high school engineering students, one of whom was quoted as saying, “People call us nerds . . . I guess I take it as a compliment.” Thus, the story received the headline, “Robotics tourney gives high school ‘nerds’ chance to compete.”

Chancellor Emeritus Karl Pister (B.S.’45, M.S.’48 CE) took issue with the choice of terms and wrote a letter to the editor. “At a time when California needs more . . . technically educated people in the workforce to sustain its economy, the pejorative word ‘nerd,’ coupled with youthful peer pressure, sends exactly the wrong message.”

Alumni Amelia Marshall (B.S.’80 EECS) and William Imler (Ph.D.’86 MSE) fired back. “We are proud of our nerdish heritage,” they responded in a subsequent letter. “From the days of yore when we balanced slide rules on our pyramids of books, to our own college days when we tried in vain to break our Hewlett-Packard scientific calculators, . . . nerds have made an invaluable contribution to the engineering profession.”

Pister says that, in the many conversations he’s had with his faculty colleagues about the exchange of letters, everyone is in complete agreement with him.

“I have absolutely no concern about anyone who wants to self-identify as a nerd, and some people like to celebrate eccentricity,” Pister says. “But the word just throws cold water on our efforts to encourage young people to go into scientific and engineering careers.”

What do you think? Are you a nerd or not? E-mail us at forefront@coe.berkeley.edu.