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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]

—Related forms
geeky, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.

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.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

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).

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper

geek

noun
1. a carnival performer who does disgusting acts
2. a person with an unusual or odd personality [syn: eccentric]

WordNet® 3.0, © 2006 by Princeton University.

computer geek jargon
(Or "turbo nerd", "turbo geek") One who eats (computer) bugs for a living. One who fulfils all the dreariest negative stereotypes about hackers: an asocial, malodourous, pasty-faced monomaniac with all the personality of a cheese grater. The term cannot be used by outsiders without implied insult to all hackers; compare black-on-black usage of "nigger". A computer geek may be either a fundamentally clueless individual or a proto-hacker in larval stage.
See also Alpha Geek, propeller head, clustergeeking, geek out, wannabee, terminal junkie, spod, weenie.
[The Jargon File]
(1997-06-26)
The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing, © 1993-2007 Denis Howe

Both the number thirteen and Friday have been considered unlucky:

* In numerology, the number twelve is considered the number of completeness, as reflected in the twelve months of the year, twelve recognized signs of the zodiac, the twelve tribes of Israel, the twelve Apostles of Jesus, etc., whereas the number thirteen was considered irregular, transgressing this completeness.[2] There is also a superstition, thought by some to derive from the Last Supper, that having thirteen people seated at a table will result in the death of one of the diners.
* Friday, as the day on which Jesus Christ was crucified, has been viewed both positively and negatively among Christians. The actual day of Crucifixion was the 14th day of Nisan in the Hebrew Lunar calendar which does not correspond to "Friday" in the solar calendar of Rome. The 15th day of Nissan (beginning at Sundown) is celebration of Passover.

Similar superstitions exist in some other traditions. In Greece, Romania and Spanish-speaking countries, for example, it is Tuesday the 13th that is considered unlucky. In Italy, it is Friday the 17th.

The fear of Friday the 13th is called paraskavedekatriaphobia,[1], a word derived from the concatenation of the Greek words Paraskeví ( ±Á±ĂşµĹ®) (meaning Friday), and dekatreís (´µş±ÄÁµŻÂ) (meaning thirteen), attached to phobía (Ćż˛Ż±) (meaning fear). The term is a specialized form of triskaidekaphobia, a simple phobia (fear) of the number thirteen appearing in any case.

Dermatillomania
Dermatillomania (also known as compulsive skin picking or CSP) is an impulse control disorder characterized by the repeated urge to pick at one's own skin, often to the extent that damage is caused.
Disfiguration of the distal and proximal joints of the middle and little fingers.
Disfiguration of the distal and proximal joints of the middle and little fingers.

Sufferers of dermatillomania find skin picking to be stress relieving or gratifying, though it can still be painful like it would be for anyone else.