Dictionary

nerdom en · NOUN

Etymology

From nerd + -dom; attested in the USA from 1983. Note that -dom is used both in the sense of “domain” (nerds, as a group) and in the sense of “characteristics” (being a nerd, nerdiness).

Meanings

1. (colloquial, rare, uncountable) The attitudes and behaviours of a nerd; nerdiness.
   • Even movies that first appear to add a promising element of nerdom always end up doing something dumb, like tarnishing a tense computer-based drama with idiotic and unusable (but oh so very sexy) 3D interfaces. 2008 October, Will Smith, “Why Does Hollywood Give Nerds a Bad Rap?”, in Maximum PC, San Francisco, Calif.: Future US, →ISSN, page 9:
   • When she [Valerie Mahaffey] was 17 she fell in love with a schoolmate named Ben: 'Together, we pulled each other out of nerddom,' she said. 1983 April 1, Nan Robertson, “Tigers or ‘top girls,’ Valerie Mahaffey adjusts”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 20 Dec 2016:
   • The self-described "exemplar of nerdom" feels right at home with Carl Sagan's speculative science-fiction [title] 1997 August, Douglas Eby, “James Woods: The self-described "exemplar of nerdom" feels right at home with Carl Sagan's speculative science-fiction”, in Cinefantastique, volume 29, number 2, Forest Park, IL: Frederick S. Clarke, →ISSN, page 28:
2. (colloquial, rare, uncountable) Nerds considered as a group.
   • I still chuckle at some of [the] jokes that we targeted to very narrow slices of nerdom. 2009, Mark Dalrymple, “Foreword”, in Jack Nutting; Dave Mark; Jeff LaMarche, Learn Cocoa on the Mac (Books for Professionals by Professionals), [New York, N.Y.]: Apress, page xi

Forms

Relateds

geekdom