Words

I like to look up words I don't know. I also like making my tutor students look up words they don't know. I find it hilarious how some of the students have to sing through the alphabet song to figure out where to look in the dictionary.

As I was looking up 'strange' and 'weird' because of Heidi's post asking which is worse, I got sidetracked. I remembered a conversation with Dan and Johny. We were discussing the differences between 'geek', 'nerd' and 'dork'. Dan said he was a geek. They called me a nerd. Johny said people call him a dork. Then they said that the meaning of 'geek' was a guy who eats a chicken's head. So, I decided to look it up. Good 'ol dependable Merriam-Webster.

* geek: 1 : a carnival performer often billed as a wild man whose act usually includes biting the head off a live chicken or snake 2 : a person often of an intellectual bent who is disapproved of
* nerd: : an unstylish, unattractive, or socially inept person; especially : one slavishly devoted to intellectual or academic pursuits
Did you know that the word 'nerd' probably comes from a Dr. Seuss book? I thought that was fascinating.
* dork: slang : nerd; also: jerk

I don't think Johny is a dork.
Dan may be a geek. Who knows? He might have a secret-double-carnival life.

Now, this may be just me being odd, but I like to click on the button that gives the pronunciation of a word. Certain words just sound funny to me. For example, the word, 'bloke'. I remember when I first looked up the word in London and I just kept hearing it over and over again because I thought it was funny. Hmm, maybe I shouldn't have shared that. Oh well.