Nerd Alert: The Dr. Seuss Link to This Common Word
We are big Dr. Seuss fans at our house. My husband, Steve, has this Seuss quote tattooed on his arm.
We enjoy learning fascinating tidbits from the World of Seuss and I always marvel at what a genius he was in so many arenas. One such example is the commonly used word nerd. The American Heritage Dictionary credits Dr. Seuss as the originator of the word, which made its first appearance in his 1950 book, "If I Ran the Zoo." In it, a creature known as a Nerd from the land of Ka-Troo is introduced: "And then, just to show them, I'll sail to Ka-Troo And Bring Back an It-Kutch a Preep and a Proo a Nerkle a Nerd and a Seersucker, too!"
Before Seuss (aka Theodore Geisel) used this great written ditty, researchers at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute referred to students who partied and rarely studied as "drunks," while the opposite were referred to as "knurds" (which is drunk spelled backwards). This was in the late 1940s, a few years before "If I Ran the Zoo" was published.
Monday, April 27, 2009 at 9:29AM
Reader Comments (2)
FUCK YEAH! Steve is so freakin RAD! You are lucky he is taken :) That is just t he best - ever!
Good stuff. Dr Seuss is the best.