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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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There was a term we used when I was back in college in the 60s for students who studied constantly and had no social life. I've forgotten the term.
It certainly wasn't workaholic, since as has been suggested above, that would more readily apply to someone actively in the work orce.
It wasn't geek since the only geeks anyone ever referred to would have been the carnival geeks wwh pointed out above.
It wasn't drone, but it was something like drone, which makes me think it may have been drudge.
Can anyone think of the term that I've forgotten? We generally applied it to those students who did not have any outstanding intellectual ability, but worked so hard in preparing for courses that they appeared to have more to work with mentally than they actually possessed in terms of original thinking.
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2002
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From my children, ... I learn that Geekness may be subdivided into classes ... indicating the locus of geekhood, e.g. cyber-geek, techno-geek, etc. ~ Father Steve
We used to have 'propeller heads', when did they vanish from the vocabulary?
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Ok, so propeller beanies got associated with computer people when I wasn't looking. That'll teach me to try and stay more current...on the other hand, maybe not.  Thanks, though.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Joined: Dec 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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The propeller beanie certainly predates the computer geek. I wanted a propeller beanie when I was a wee tad. By the time I got it I was too old (and too young) to wear it.
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Joined: Apr 2003
Posts: 67
journeyman
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journeyman
Joined: Apr 2003
Posts: 67 |
dictionary.com gives the following synonyms for 'nerd,' (the meaning of which includes a part of the definition that Wordwind mentioned...)
nerd
n : a student who studies excessively [syn: swot, grind, wonk]
Source: WordNet ® 1.6, © 1997 Princeton University
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Joined: Apr 2003
Posts: 67
journeyman
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journeyman
Joined: Apr 2003
Posts: 67 |
Dictionary.com (again!) gives an interesting peek at the origin of this word, and that of some others...
"Our Living Language: Our word geek is now chiefly associated with student and computer slang; one probably thinks first of a computer geek. In origin, however, it is one of the words American English borrowed from the vocabulary of the circus, which was a much more significant source of entertainment in the United States in the 19th and early 20th century than it is now. Large numbers of traveling circuses left a cultural legacy in various and sometimes unexpected ways. For example, Superman and other comic book superheroes owe much of their look to circus acrobats, who were similarly costumed in capes and tights. The circus sideshow is the source of the word geek, “a performer who engaged in bizarre acts, such as biting the head off a live chicken.” We also owe the word ballyhoo to the circus; its ultimate origin is unknown, but in the late 1800s it referred to a flamboyant free musical performance conducted outside a circus with the goal of luring customers to buy tickets to the inside shows. Other words and expressions with circus origins include bandwagon (coined by P.T. Barnum in 1855) and Siamese twin."
Source: The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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thanks, anchita! I never knew that about Superman, never would have guessed. and I love the word ballyhoo; it'd be a great name for a band..  not sure I ever welcomed you to the board; Welcome!
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