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[geek] /gik/ Slang.

noun
1.
a digital-technology expert or enthusiast (a term of pride as self-reference, but often used disparagingly by others).
2.
a person who has excessive enthusiasm for and some expertise about a specialized subject or activity:
a foreign-film geek.
3.
a peculiar person, especially one who is perceived to be overly intellectual, unfashionable, or socially awkward.
4.
a carnival performer who performs sensationally morbid or disgusting acts, as biting off the head of a live chicken.
verb (used without object)
5.
to be overexcited about a specialized subject or activity, or to talk about it with excessive enthusiasm (usually followed by out):
I could geek out about sci-fi for hours.
/ɡiːk/
noun (slang)
1.
a person who is preoccupied with or very knowledgeable about computing
2.
a boring and unattractive social misfit
3.
a degenerate
noun

See gearhead
n.

“sideshow freak,” 1916, U.S. carnival and circus slang, perhaps a variant of geck “a fool, dupe, simpleton” (1510s), apparently from Low German geck, from an imitative verb found in North Sea Germanic and Scandinavian meaning “to croak, cackle,” and also “to mock, cheat.” The modern form and the popular use with reference to circus sideshow “wild men” is from 1946, in William Lindsay Gresham’s novel “Nightmare Alley” (made into a film in 1947 starring Tyrone Power).

“An ordinary geek doesn’t actually eat snakes, just bites off chunks of ’em, chicken heads and rats.” [Arthur H. Lewis, “Carnival,” 1970]

By c.1983, used in teenager slang in reference to peers who lacked social graces but were obsessed with new technology and computers (e.g. the Anthony Michael Hall character in 1984’s “Sixteen Candles”).

geek out vi. To temporarily enter techno-nerd mode while in a non-hackish context, for example at parties held near computer equipment. [Eric S. Raymond, “The New Hacker’s Dictionary,” 1996]

noun

Related Terms

gink

[origin unknown; perhaps related to British dialect geck, geke, ”fool”; according to David Maurer, ”said to have originated with a man named Wagner of Charleston, WV, whose hideous snake-eating act made him famous”]

computer geek