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Let’s keep moving right along in our new blog dictionary, providing research of the word, “Geek”.

In the 1991 edition of Webster’s dictionary, it claimed Geek as being “the name of a carnival man whose act involved biting the head off a live chicken or snake.” It also stated that the first time it was used in the English language was in 1916 describing a Wells Fargo Messenger. The quote read, “A new Wells agent struck our town the other week, and say, – you never saw a more enthusiastic Geek!”

But according to the most authoritative source of information, the Oxford English Dictionary claims that the word came from a German word, “Geck”, which was used to describe a fool, a simpleton and also cited that William Shakespeare used the word in several of his plays.

Modern day translates the word Geek as merely an updated form of the word, “nerd”, but is described as less pejorative in tone. Meaning, it just sounds nicer.

“Geek” has become more popular in the modern day, because descriptively, it is one who not only became obsessed with their computer, but also achieved a high level of expertise in their field.

However, the connotation remains, that a geek is a negative thing…something we don’t want to be!
“But wait,” you ask yourself, “why should I be a Geek”? I mean ewwww!! Geeks don’t have friends; Geeks have no personality and lack social graces; Geeks are boys who are not jocks, or girls who will never favor the cheerleading circuit. However, the contradiction might imagine Einstein was a Geek, as was Beethoven, and perhaps even some hero’s like Rocky, or Star Track heroes. So, is Geek a good word or an unkind one?

A very clever professor, at the university where he teaches, proposed a speech to new inbound students, suggesting a new meaning of the word Geek. He challenged the dictionary enthusiasts of the world to adopt a more profound acceptable description of the word. His definition was meant to reach thousands of students and educators around the world.

His suggestion of the word GEEK:

Genuine Enthusiast for Education and Knowledge.

The professor told his students that there are Music Geeks, Literature Geeks, and Psychology Geeks; there are Geeks of Business, Geeks of Education, and Geeks of the Arts. But the most important message he gave, was that today’s Geeks were the creators in society, not just the consumers. So he felt Geek was a good word.

Well, that does sound promising and very optimistic. That’s taking a word and making something positive out of it. But I don’t know many words that we could do that with…but let’s think about that for a moment.

We could take for instance, the word devil. Now that meaning is practically written out for us…
d (= damning), evil. That would be one meaning, or it could mean,

Don’t Eliminate Verbiage In Language; or you too could be considered a Geek!

Maybe we should stick with the definition that describes us “Geeks” as oddballs, who eat chicken and beef, (but not snakes) and certainly without the heads!

Being a lover of words, I was just wondering where the word “blog” was initiated, since technically, we don’t have grammatically correct slang words; I would have to analyze the term very carefully before commenting. I would probably surmise that “B” stands for business…and then there is, of course, the obvious “log”. Business Log…hmm, that might make sense. A bit logical I would think. So, being a writer, I decided to research this infamous word, to see how close I came.

Remember how we used to take the romantic sounding words from other countries,like Latin or Greek, and come up with the English version of it?  Now, we are a much savvier techie, alluding to the computer generated version of the English language, which actually is acceptable in the era of high-technology.  Here are some samples I found in my research:

(Ahem: Disclaimer: Any grammatical errors in these quotes are the sole ownership of the writers who submitted them and not those of yours truly).  

“It’s short for Web log, a log (journal) published on the Web. somebody thought it would be cool to start with weblog and take away the we”
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“It is a contraction of “web log”, ie a journal… slur it together, “weblog”, drop it to just ‘blog.”
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“WeB log….weB LOG…the words combined making Blog. It means a place on the web where you can log or keep track, make note of things.”
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“a blog is something like an online diary where everyone is able to see it if they go to your blog..”
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“True, BLOGs came from Web log, however they have evolved into something very different today.”
”Weblogs before were basically pages where owners put in their favorite links and reviewed them. After some time it evolved into an online journal, which is the most common understanding of blogs today. it means WEB LOG”
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“Blog is short for weblog. A weblog is a journal (or newsletter) that is frequently updated and intended for general public consumption. Blogs generally represent the personality of the author or the Web site. If it is website, it displays in chronological order the postings by one or more individuals and usually has links to comments on specific postings.”

“Blogs often provide commentary or news on a particular subject, such as food, politics, or local news; some function as more personal online diaries. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, web pages, and other media related to its topic. Most blogs are primarily textual although many focus on photograph (photoblog), videos (vlog), or audio (podcasting)”

Ah! Ha!  So, it was not derived from a business standpoint at all, and my analysis was incorrect! Well, not totally. Let’s just say I was half right and leave it at that…so, maybe for business we could say, B2BBlog!   There you have it, a new term!  Be sure to let me know what YOUR B2BBlog is about!  Oh yes, if you don’t know what B2B means, why not make it your Google word for the day!