DiscussWorldIssues - Socio-Economic Religion and Political Uncensored Debate - View Single Post

**PoideAdelereX** · 03-25-2006, 07:00 AM

Please I ask of you all embroiled in this root fit...if you'd like, start another thread to address such matters...

Geek: It is commonly touted that geek originally meant a sideshow performer who bites the heads off chickens or snakes. While this is a sense of the word, it is not the original one.

Geek is actually a very old word. It is a variant of geck, a term of Low German/Dutch origin that dates in English to 1511. It means a fool, simpleton, or dupe. Geck is even used by Shakespeare in Twelfth Night, V.i.:

Why haue you suffer'd me to be imprison'd. And made the most notorious gecke and gull That ere inuention plaid on?
The geek spelling is an American variation, even though Shakespeare uses the spelling geeke in Cymbeline V.iv., but this is probably just a misspelling. Geek first appears (outside the single Shakespearean usage) in 1876 America. American usage adds the connotation of offensive or undesirable to the original foolish and stupid sense. The Carnival sideshow sense appears in 1928.

03-25-2006, 07:00 AM	#19
PoideAdelereX Join Date Oct 2005 Posts 314 Senior Member	Please I ask of you all embroiled in this root fit...if you'd like, start another thread to address such matters... Geek: It is commonly touted that geek originally meant a sideshow performer who bites the heads off chickens or snakes. While this is a sense of the word, it is not the original one. Geek is actually a very old word. It is a variant of geck, a term of Low German/Dutch origin that dates in English to 1511. It means a fool, simpleton, or dupe. Geck is even used by Shakespeare in Twelfth Night, V.i.: Why haue you suffer'd me to be imprison'd. And made the most notorious gecke and gull That ere inuention plaid on? The geek spelling is an American variation, even though Shakespeare uses the spelling geeke in Cymbeline V.iv., but this is probably just a misspelling. Geek first appears (outside the single Shakespearean usage) in 1876 America. American usage adds the connotation of offensive or undesirable to the original foolish and stupid sense. The Carnival sideshow sense appears in 1928.
	Quote