The Oxford Dictionary of New Words

aping their elders.

Art & Design Oct. 1987, p. 31

nerd noun (People and Society) (Youth Culture)

In US slang: a contemptible or boring person, especially one who is studious, conventional, or 'square'; a dweeb.

Etymology: Of uncertain origin: possibly a euphemistic alteration of turd, but perhaps simply an allusion to a nonsense word used in Dr Seuss's children's book If I Ran the Zoo (1950):

And then, just to show them, I'll sail to Ka-Troo And Bring Back an It-Kutch, a Preep and a Proo, a Nerkle, a Nerd, and a Seersucker, too!

History and Usage: Nerd itself has been in use in US slang since the sixties, but enjoyed a fashion in the late seventies and early eighties which led to the development of a number of derivatives and compounds. Notable among these are the adjectives nerdish, nerdlike, and nerdy and the nouns

nerdishness and nerdism. The nerd affects a fussy, conventional (and, some would say, pretentious) style of dress and appearance which became known as the nerd look; the quintessential characteristic of the nerd, a plastic pocket protector worn in

the top pocket to prevent pens from soiling the fabric, was nicknamed the nerd pack. The word nerd had supposedly gone out of fashion by the late eighties in favour of dweeb and other synonyms, but it and its derivatives had by then already spread

to the UK and continued to appear frequently in print, even in US sources, into the early nineties. A British variation on the same theme is nerk, a stupid or objectionable person (probably formed by telescoping nerd and jerk to make a blend); the corresponding adjective is nerkish.

To make the simplest and most effective statement of your nerdishness, all you need to do is go out and buy a bra. Not the kind associated with women, but the black, oozy, plastic kind that dimwits put on the front of

their cars. The auto bra is at its nerdish best when used on cars costing less than œ10,000.

Car & Driver Oct. 1989, p. 3

Cedrico and Angelita...would call them aunt and uncle if they didn't consider such titles nerdy.

Alice Walker Temple of My Familiar (1989), p. 395

Most people think of BBSs as crude hacker forums where computer nerds trade tips on how to pirate software or break into the Pentagon's computers.

Computer Buyer's Guide 1990, part 3, p. 34

Nerdpacks are for engineers and computer programmers who have earned their status as nerds, or

compulsive-obsessive gadget freaks.

Michael Johnson Business Buzzwords (1990), p. 97

net (Science and Technology) see networký and neural

network° intransitive verb (Business World) (People and Society)

To make use of one's membership of a network, one's contacts, etc. to acquire information or some professional advantage, often while appearing to be engaged only in social activity. Frequently as the verbal noun networking, the use of contacts in this way; also as agent noun networker, a person who uses this technique.

Etymology: The verbal noun was formed on the noun network, with the simple verb as a later back-formation from it. The verb to network in the sense 'to cover with a network' had existed since

the late nineteenth century and had developed technical uses in broadcasting and computing in the forties and seventies respectively.

History and Usage: As the feminist movement gathered momentum during the seventies, it was realized that men had always used

the old boy network to get ahead, and there was no reason why women should not do the same. By the late eighties, particularly as the individualistic ethos of the Thatcher and Reagan economies became evident, networking was recognized as an

important way of advancing all kinds of interests (not just among women).

Over a networking lunch of smoked salmon sandwiches...she learned all that she needed to know about the status, income and prospects of her Valentine date.

The Times 9 Feb. 1985, p. 11

Party delegates are gathering...and 'networking'.

Independent 16 July 1988, p. 6

networký noun and verb (Science and Technology)

noun: A system of interconnected computers, especially within a business organization etc.; a local area network (see LAN) or wide area network (see WAN). Sometimes abbreviated to net.

transitive verb: To link (computers or other electronic equipment) together to form a network, so as to make it possible to transfer data, share resources, or access the system from a number of different locations. Also as an adjective networked; action noun networking.

Etymology: A further specialized development of network in the sense of 'something which resembles a net in its complex organization and interconnectedness'; earlier examples had included the broadcasting network.

History and Usage: The first computer networks were set up in the sixties; by the early eighties the word was frequently used as an abbreviation of the longer terms local area network and wide area network, especially by those who did not feel comfortable with the acronyms LAN and WAN. The further abbreviated form net originated in the jargon of computer scientists in the seventies, but by the mid eighties was beginning to gain a wider currency. The general public perhaps met it most frequently as a suffix for the proper names of large computer networks or their components, such as Ethernet and Internet.

Extras:...ECONET network interface.

Which Micro? Dec. 1984, p. 20

The net requires you to have intelligence at the terminals but the PCs don't have to be flash and you have to be careful the network will support them.

Today's Computers Nov. 1985, p. 125

One result of buying different types of equipment has been their lack of compatibility within a network.

Daily Telegraph 21 Nov. 1986, p. 4

The term 'ION' stands for 'Image Online Network' and means that this camera has the potential to be connected--or 'networked'--to a range of other

equipment, such as computers, desktop publishing systems and copiers.

Video Maker July/Aug. 1990, p. 37

See also neural

neural adjective (Science and Technology)

In computing jargon: modelled on the arrangement of neurons in the brain and nervous system; used especially in neural network (or neural net), a computer system which is designed to simulate the human brain in its ability to 'learn' probabilistically and carry out complex processes simultaneously at a number of different nodes.

Etymology: A figurative use of the adjective neural.

History and Usage: The development of computer neural networks was founded on the work of mathematicians studying neurophysiology as a model for the construction of automata from the late forties onwards; it was not until the eighties, though,

that computer scientists announced that they had succeeded in building a computer which worked on the neural principle. The basic principle underlying the neural net computer is that of

New Age approach to health, society, music, etc.

Etymology: Formed by compounding: an age that is new. The term may be used to describe any new era or beginning, but, from

about the turn of the century, it also became an alternative name in astrology for the Age of Aquarius, that part of the zodiacal cycle which the world is due to enter in the late twentieth or early twenty-first century, and which is believed to signal an era of new spiritual awareness and collective consciousness.

History and Usage: Although New Age originated in and remained strongly associated with California and the West Coast of the

US, its influence spread throughout the US and northern Europe and became established in communities such as Findhorn in Scotland from about the beginning of the seventies. Many of the

various components that make up the New Age Movement--including the wide range of alternative and complementary therapies, the practice of Eastern religions, and the fascination with the

occult and parapsychology--are of course not 'new'; and moreover, at first sight, they seem to follow directly from

aspects of the hippie movement of the sixties. What made New Age different (and in this sense 'new') was that, whereas the hippie movement involved mainly young people and tended to operate in opposition to contemporary Western society, New Age was by the early eighties attracting not only an older age group but also middle-class people who had both money and status within

society. Such people--some of whom were in fact the hippies of the sixties now grown older--not only gave the movement a reputation for being a kind of 'religion for yuppies', they

also, by the late eighties, ensured its rapid growth and extraordinary success in commercial terms, whether it was in publishing New Age books on organic gardening or astrological charts, or in promoting crystal healing or water-divining. A person involved with New Age ideas was soon referred to by the agent noun New Ager.

The general theme within the New Age Movement was that in the harsh post-industrial world of the late twentieth century,

people had somehow become out of balance both with their own spiritual selves and with nature and the environment as a whole; this theme was strongly featured in New Age music. From about the middle of the eighties, this term was loosely applied to a

particular brand of music that tended to be characterized by light melodic harmonies and improvisation, by the lack of a strong beat or prominent vocals, and by the use of such instruments as the piano, harp, and synthesizer. The idea was to create a relaxing or dream-like atmosphere; sometimes sounds were reproduced from the natural world such as 'planetary' sounds and the calls of dolphins and whales.

Most New Agers favor replacing nuclear and fossil fuels with ecologically sound solar power which represents a kind of marriage between technology and spirit.

Nation 31 Aug. 1985, p. 146

Most of them listen to New Age music--waves lapping, whales calling, amplified heartbeats and so on. None of them listen to the Beach Boys.

Sunday Express Magazine 23 Aug. 1987, p. 30

So-called New Age philosophy has much in common with the worldmind and Gaia: the self is subsumed in the larger whole.

Raritan (1989), volume IX, p. 132

Mrs. Brandon is less furiously New Age; her hair is frosted and shaped into a ladylike little flip.

Perri Klass Other Women's Children (1990), p. 65

new-collar

adjective and noun (People and Society)

adjective: Belonging to a supposed socio-economic group made up of white-collar workers who are more affluent and better

educated than their parents.

noun: A person who belongs to this group.

Etymology: Formed by compounding: having a collar of a new kind.

History and Usage: Ralph Whitehead, a Chicago reporter who later became a University professor, was one of many people writing in the seventies about the demographic changes that had taken place in the US since the war. He noticed that as a

result of the declining manufacturing sector, large numbers of people from working-class ('blue-collar') backgrounds were moving into new areas of employment, and were as a result beginning to acquire new, supposedly more 'educated' values--and to vote differently. In a series of articles, Whitehead

described this subgroup of 'baby boomers' in detail: the idea caught on amongst political commentators, and from about the mid eighties the new-collar worker became a stereotype, to be

courted by advertisers and politicians like the less numerous (but even more affluent) yuppies.

There has arisen what Whitehead calls the 'new-collar class'. New collars are to the middle class what yuppies are to the upper-middle class...New collars earn from $20,000 to $40,000. But what new collars lose in individual wealth when compared to yuppies, they gain back in numbers.

New Republic 30 Dec. 1985, p. 20

new heroin

(Drugs) see designer drug

New Wave noun and adjective (Music) (Youth Culture)

noun: A style of rock music which grew out of punk rock, but later developed a more restrained character of its own and proved more enduring than punk.

adjective: Belonging to this style of rock.

Etymology: There had already been a New Wave in jazz and a similar movement in French cinema (also known as nouvelle vague); the punk rockers simply adopted the term and applied it in a new context.

History and Usage: New Wave developed in the late seventies as a toning-down of some of the more shocking features of punk rock, especially in the US. The angry, socially conscious lyrics

can be recharged frequently and is able to deliver short bursts of high current. Often used attributively, especially in nicad battery.

Etymology: A clipped compound, formed by combining the initial syllables of nickel and cadmium.

History and Usage: Nicads were first used in the fifties, amongst other uses in experimental electric cars, but proved too expensive to be very successful at that time. During the sixties they were among the types of battery tried out in US spacecraft. What really ensured their success was the search for a lightweight rechargeable battery for the growing market in portable computers in the late seventies and early eighties. As the eighties progressed, public interest in green issues led to

a greater demand for rechargeable batteries for all kinds of consumer durables, and the word nicad entered the general vocabulary, initially through advertising of these products.

Ni-cads are better able to provide a sufficient current but, at 1.2 V instead of 1.5 V each, the effect is much the same.

Cycletouring Jan. 1986, p. 31

Clock version has high capacity NiCad battery--never needs replacing!

Amiga User International May 1990, p. 99

niche noun (Business World)

In business jargon, a position from which an entrepreneur is able to exploit a gap in the market; a profitable corner of the market.

Etymology: A specialized figurative sense of niche (literally 'a recess'), similar to corner in its business sense.

History and Usage: This sense of niche was first used by Frederik Barth in his book The Role of the Entrepreneur in Social Change in Northern Norway (1963). In the late seventies and eighties it gave rise to a number of compounds and