1950 (Dr. Seuss): The term first appeared in print in If I Ran the Zoo by Theodor Seuss Geisel. It named a scruffy, fictional creature ("a Nerkle, a Nerd, and a Seersucker, too").

1951 (Newsweek): The magazine reported on Detroit student slang, noting that a "nerd" meant a square or a drip—someone lacking style or social grace.

In 1958 I was a freshman (grade 9) at St. Edward’s High School in Austin. Because I could not dance I was ashamed to go to the sock hops and meet girls. I was a self-styled nerd.

At that time I was obsessed with flying saucers. I had read that the appearance of one modified the magnetic field around it. I devised an apparatus to spot them. I bought a large compass and removed the glass top. I put a little metal triangle on one side, close to magnetic North, attached to a buzzer run by a battery. Should a flying saucer show up the magnetic field would make the needle move. It did the first night all night! The large tractor trailers on nearby Congress Avenue were the culprits. Brother Vincent de Paul, C.S.C. our dormitory caretaker confiscated my device.

From there I went to Whamo slingshots and blowguns. In that year Whamo introduced its Pluto Platter. By 1958 I had purchased its renamed Frisbee.

I believe that I am still a nerd even though I did learn to dance the Argentine Tango (efficiently) and I scored for 52 years a dazzling blonde.