"geek"

abc   Tue Sep 27, 2005 8:19 am GMT
what does it mean? is it a good thing to be called a "geek"?
Guest   Tue Sep 27, 2005 8:22 am GMT
no
Kirk   Tue Sep 27, 2005 8:28 am GMT
Depends. "Geek" can be both positive or negative as I hear and use it. It usually implies you're at least intelligent or above intelligent and you're interested (maybe even to a dizzying degree) in a certain subject or are good at something that most people either find boring, peripheral, or irrelevant to their lives. Whether or not you take pride in such a thing depends on if it's a good or bad thing for you. For instance, I unabashedly may refer to myself as an IPA geek because I'm very interested in it and it's not an interest commonly held by the general population.
Rick Johnson in the house   Tue Sep 27, 2005 9:19 am GMT
Originally a "geek" was a freak show performer (the sort that used to travel around the Southern States) who would do such things as bite the heads off live animals. More recently, over the last 20 or 30 years it has been used to describe someone who is socially inept or someone with an unhealthy interest in computers!!
Frances   Tue Sep 27, 2005 12:48 pm GMT
Here's some definitions for "geek":

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=geek
Damian   Tue Sep 27, 2005 1:13 pm GMT
Geek can be used as a bullying word...... a bit like nerd.....they mean the same thing more or less. Those who call others geeks or nerds have some kind of complex....maybe inferiority......or just a wee bit jealous that geeks have knowledge and enthusiasm the geekiless or nerdiless (?) don't have.

Without geeks there would not have been the technology we have today or any of the inventions throughout time. Geeks are behind a thing called genius and inventiveness.

A geekless world means still living in caves covered in woad....not good at -25C.
Rolls   Tue Sep 27, 2005 3:22 pm GMT
Woad? What is that? Is that a Scottish term?
Damian in Scotland   Tue Sep 27, 2005 4:46 pm GMT
No Rolls....an Ancient Briton term....woad: a blue dye which the ABs painted themselves all over with from head to toe in an attempt to make themselves look more scary to their enemies.

In Britain you don't need to use woad...just go out and about in the buff on most days of the year and you'll turn blue naturally.

Anyway/anyways here's a Poetic Woad link:

http://www.nyrond.co.uk/filks/fantasy/woadwarr.txt