I’ve been periodically giggling about this all day, so I’ve decided to share. When working on that last post, this gem surprised me -
Who’d have thought the No. 1 definition of geek at Merriam-Webster Online would be:
1. a carnival performer often billed as a wild man whose act usually includes biting the head off a live chicken or snake
You have to get all the way down to definition No. 3 for:
3. an enthusiast or expert especially in a technological field or activity <computer geek>
Ponder the irony. How’d the No. 3 definition ever evolve from that No. 1 definition? Just curious.
And, silly me. The reason I looked it up was I thought maybe the EE in geek had something to do with electrical engineering. (Don’t take offense, Griz, the “technical geek” is much less derogatory than it used to be – more like a badge of excellence, now.)
There’s lots more on the word “geek” at Wikipedia.
