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Posted By: Kevin Cummings

Webster defines a nerd as an "unstylish, unattractive or socially inept person especially one slavishly devoted to intellectual or academic pursuits." While nerd, dork, and geek share in passionate intellectual pursuits and social ineptitude, nerd has the added implication of being affable and amusing.

Webster defines a geek as "a person often of an intellectual bent who is disliked" or "an enthusiast or expert especially in a technological field or activity."

Since the definition of nerd does not mention anything about expertise in the field being passionately pursued, one might reasonably assume that if one hangs out long enough on Net54 and absorbs enough knowledge on baseball cards, one could graduate from nerdiness to geekdom. Of course, that would mean you'd be sacrificing your affability for expert knowledge.

Edited for grammar.