Sunday, March 28, 2010

Nerd/Dork/Geek/Dweeb Venn diagram

This beautiful Venn diagram (via cema) explains the meaning of four important terms (I am not sure though that "dweebs" are still in circulation):



Hey, native speakers: is it accurate?

9 comments:

Volodya said...

I think that it's not too accurate (not that I am a native speaker). At least, it does not quite agree (I think) with that quotation from Golden Girls:

Dorothy: Oh, so if a student pays attention, works hard, and gets good grades, does that make him a geek?

Kevin: Um, no, that would make him a dork. A geek is more like, you know, somebody who has no friends and is always staying home on a Saturday night, their nose buried in a book.

avzel said...

Well, let's see, it seems to be harder than I thought. So Kevin's definition would move Geek to Nerd's place in the diagram, right? And if you interpret Dorothy's description of her student as including some Social Ineptitude (in the eyes of fellow students), that would mean moving Dork to Dweeb's place, right?

I am not sure though the writers of Golden Girls were of the right age to get it right!

Volodya said...

I actually would move Geek to Dweeb's place. (I find the placing of Dork appropriate: Dorothy's model can be imagined without much intelligence, - just memorizing stuff, sort of.)

Грачиха said...

Теперь я буду знать, кто такой dweeb!

avzel said...

Я всё-таки предпочитаю подождать подтверждения собственных детей (если снизойдут, конечно).

Leozz said...

Caveat: not a native speaker.
Dweeb is pretty much a swearword which is not used very much. I would not consider someone called a dweeb particularly intelligent, though I suppose they would likely be socially inept. I'd move Dweeb straight into the socially inept box, not intersecting anything else.

Everything else I'd agree with.

By the way, I self-identify as a geek.

avzel said...

Leo: you are native enough for me! Leaving aside Dweeb, which seems to be obsolete anyway, my gut feeling is also that the diagram is accurate for other three terms.

bravchick said...

My daughter when asked to comment on this diagram said: "I don't know. I am too nerdish to judge". So at least for the nerd part the diagram seems to be accurate :)

avzel said...

Ok, let's accept it.