nerdom

Definition

The attitudes and behaviours of a nerd; nerdiness.

Etymology

From nerd + -dom; attested in the USA from 1983. Note that -dom is used both in the sense of “domain” (nerds, as a group) and in the sense of “characteristics” (being a nerd, nerdiness).

Example Sentences

• "When she [Valerie Mahaffey] was 17 she fell in love with a schoolmate named Ben: 'Together, we pulled each other out of nerddom,' she said."
• "The self-described "exemplar of nerdom" feels right at home with Carl Sagan's speculative science-fiction [title]"
• "Even movies that first appear to add a promising element of nerdom always end up doing something dumb, like tarnishing a tense computer-based drama with idiotic and unusable (but oh so very sexy) 3D interfaces."