There were no nerds in the 1700s. There were no nerds in the 1800s. When did nerds as a distinct social category come about?
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Definitely the idea of someone who was too interested in school, too "bookish", and liable to be bullied or ostracized for this, was a thing by the late 19th and early 20th century. F. Scott Fitzgerald certainly takes it for granted that one doesn't want to be that.
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Maybe, as someone mentioned, it's not a coincidence that this coincides with the high school movement. Before that, the people who didn't like book-learning wouldn't go to school past childhood, so school was about book-learning (and moral instruction), not social adjustment.
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This is a pretty fascinating reference. Interesting to think about if nerdishness could just be a rejection of this ideal.
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