Geeks ...Definition
geek ( P ) n. Slang a. A person regarded as foolish,
inept, or clumsy.
b. A person who is single-minded or accomplished in
scientific or technical pursuits but is felt to be
socially inept. 2. A carnival performer whose show
consists of bizarre acts, such as biting the head off
a live chicken.
[Perhaps alteration of dialectal geck, fool, from Low
German gek, from Middle Low German.]
geeky adj.
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.
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