:nerd: /n./ 1. [mainstream slang] Pejorative applied to anyone with an above-average IQ and few gifts at small talk and ordinary social rituals. 2. [jargon] Term of praise applied (in conscious ironic reference to sense 1) to someone who knows what's really important and interesting and doesn't care to be distracted by trivial chatter and silly status games. Compare the two senses of {computer geek}.
The word itself appears to derive from the lines "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!" in the
Dr. Seuss book "If I Ran the Zoo" (1950). (The spellings
`nurd' and `gnurd' also used to be current at MIT.) How it
developed its mainstream meaning is unclear, but sense 1 seems to
have entered mass culture in the early 1970s (there are reports
that in the mid-1960s it meant roughly "annoying misfit"
without the connotation of intelligence).
An IEEE Spectrum article (4/95, page 16) once derived `nerd' in its variant form `knurd' from the word `drunk' backwards, but this bears all the earmarks of a bogus folk etymology.
Hackers developed sense 2 in self-defense perhaps ten years later, and some actually wear "Nerd Pride" buttons, only half as a joke. At MIT one can find not only buttons but (what else?) pocket protectors bearing the slogan and the MIT seal.
:net.-: /net dot/ /pref./ [Usenet] Prefix used to describe
people and events related to Usenet. From the time before the
{Great Renaming}, when most non-local newsgroups had names
beginning `net.'. Includes {net.god}s, `net.goddesses'
(various charismatic net.women with circles of on-line admirers),
`net.lurkers' (see {lurker}), `net.person', `net.parties'
(a synonym for {boink}, sense 2), and many similar constructs.
See also {net.police}.
:net.god: /net god/ /n./ Accolade referring to anyone who
satisfies some combination of the following conditions: has been
visible on Usenet for more than 5 years, ran one of the original
backbone sites, moderated an important newsgroup, wrote news
software, or knows Gene, Mark, Rick, Mel, Henry, Chuq, and Greg
personally. See {demigod}. Net.goddesses such as Rissa or the
Slime Sisters have (so far) been distinguished more by personality
than by authority.
:net.personality: /net per`sn-al'-*-tee/ /n./ Someone who has made a name for him or herself on {Usenet}, through either longevity or attention-getting posts, but doesn't meet the other requirements of {net.god}hood.
:net.police: /net-p*-lees'/ /n./ (var. `net.cops') Those Usenet readers who feel it is their responsibility to pounce on and {flame} any posting which they regard as offensive or in violation of their understanding of {netiquette}. Generally used sarcastically or pejoratively. Also spelled `net police'. See also {net.-}, {code police}.
:NetBOLLIX: /n./ [from bollix: to bungle] {IBM}'s NetBIOS, an extremely {brain-damaged} network protocol that, like {Blue Glue}, is used at commercial shops that don't know any better.
:netburp: /n./ [IRC] When {netlag} gets really bad, and delays between servers exceed a certain threshhold, the {IRC} network effectively becomes partitioned for a period of time, and large numbers of people seem to be signing off at the same time and then signing back on again when things get better. An instance of this is called a `netburp' (or, sometimes, {netsplit}).