Gledam "Na rubu znanosti: Geekovi" i nešto mi ne paše u njihovom diskurzu o geekovima. Ne znam što, a (žalosno, žalosno i vrlo ne-geekovski) nemam vremena baš puno razmišljati o tome što.
Googlam na brzaka, da vidim kako se definira geek i pokušavam se sjetiti jedne super definicije koju sam čula od frenda. I ne ide...
A geek je...? Hm...
geek
Slang.
–noun
1. a peculiar or otherwise dislikable person, esp. one who is perceived to be overly intellectual.
2. a computer expert or enthusiast (a term of pride as self-reference, but often considered offensive when used by outsiders.)
3. a carnival performer who performs sensationally morbid or disgusting acts, as biting off the head of a live chicken.
[Origin: 1915- 20; prob. var. of geck (mainly Scots) fool < D or LG gek]
geek
n.
1.
1. A person regarded as foolish, inept, or clumsy.
2. 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.
tr.v. geeked, geek·ing, geeks
To excite emotionally: I'm geeked about that new video game.
[Perhaps alteration of dialectal geck, fool, from Low German gek, from Middle Low German.]
geek'y adj.
Our Living Language : Our word geek is now chiefly associated with contemporary student and computer slang, as in computer geek. In fact, geek is first attested in 1876 with the meaning "fool," and it later also came to mean "a performer engaging in bizarre acts like biting the head off a live chicken." Perhaps the use of geek to describe a circus sideshow has contributed to its current popularity. The circus was a much more significant source of entertainment in the United States in the 19th and early 20th centuries than it is now, and large numbers of traveling circuses left a cultural legacy in various unexpected ways. Superman and other comic book superheroes owe much of their look to circus acrobats, who were similarly costumed in capes and tights. 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 shows inside. Other words and expressions with circus origins include bandwagon (coined by P.T. Barnum in 1855) and Siamese twin.
geek
"sideshow freak," 1916, U.S. carnival and circus slang, perhaps a variant of geck "a fool, dupe, simpleton" (1515), apparently from Low Ger. geck, from an imitative verb found in North Sea Gmc. and Scand. meaning "to croak, cackle," and also "to mock, cheat." The modern form and the popular use with ref. 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).
Usred tuluma, veli jedan Aussie: Can you define a Turing machine?
Tko odgovori "definirati što?" definitvno nije geek.
I ne, guglanje ne pomaže, jer do idućeg tuluma i sljedećeg spomena Turingove mašine (ili kak se već veli na hrvatskom) onaj tko to ne živi, već će zaboraviti.