The word "geek" is derived from the freak show

The word "giknuty" means crazy, "the rotated" on something, a fanatic, an English geek represents roughly the same as ours, but it could have clearly negative connotations - geek, freak, stupid.

Variations of this concept with the same value are found in many European languages: in Low German dialect groups - geck, the same root is preserved in Dutch and Afrikaans (gek). Swedish gäcka mean trick, fool, in the Alsatian dialect is a term gickeleshut - dunce cap worn at carnivals.

In XVIII-th century (reign of Habsburg) in the territory of modern Austria and Hungary «gecken» called people with disabilities in physiological development, which is usually shown in a circus.

The publication «American Heritage Dictionary» the 1976 also connects geek only circus "freak show", while in the modern sense of "mad enthusiast" word was first mentioned back in 1952 in a story by Robert Heinlein's "Year of the end of the game." < br />


Now the word "geek" is far removed from its original meaning, often pointing to the appearance defects or mental retardation: in our time "boom", as defined by the American writer Julie Smith, means "smyshlёny but poorly socialized eccentric living in worlds created favorite authors. He likes to dream in solitude and immersed in another reality that now, for example, it is easy to make your computer ».

via factroom.ru