Is There An Actual Definition For The Term “Word Nerd”?
If you’re anything like us, you collect words the same way that other people collect coins or Pokémon cards. You think about words while you’re dreaming, and you’re constantly on the hunt for new words during the day. You underline new vocabulary in books, you keep a note in your smartphone of new words you heard on a podcast, and your friends are afraid to play against you in Scrabble.
You’re a word nerd.
And while there may not be a formal definition in the dictionary … yet(!) … we think we’ve found some pretty good beginnings of a definition in the making. We recently asked our Twitter followers to share with us how they were a word nerd without explicitly saying they were a word nerd, and received a deluge of responses.
Tell us you're a word nerd without telling us you're a word nerd.
— Dictionary.com (@Dictionarycom) December 10, 2020
Here are just a few of some of our favorite responses:
I learned how to spell the word syzygy when I was four years old.
— Swamp Witch (@Knightfan95) December 10, 2020
Do you remember when Jupiter and Saturn aligned in November 2020? That was a syzygy. And some people learn to spell it when they’re four-years-old.
https://twitter.com/Amati9/status/1337035169707003904
We have to admit, we’re a sucker for alliteration.
My mother used to punish me for finishing my sentences with a preposition.
— Jamie S. (@Caciolu) December 10, 2020
Tough, but some people are real grammar sticklers.
https://twitter.com/cookoorikoo/status/1337040650575888385
This is such a great idea, that we might steal it.
Facetious is my favorite word because it contains all the vowels and in order
— maya (@la_pinchipessa) December 10, 2020
We’re having a difficult time taking this seriously (wink, wink). Don’t get it? Look up the meaning of facetious here.
https://twitter.com/hulabunny/status/1337143428610584576
We don’t know whether this palindrome is delicious or adorable.
Read more about some other palindromes here to see if you agree about taco cat.
The first word I tried to type using Swype on my Android phone was "discombobulated."
— KaosP (@KaosP) December 10, 2020
We feel discombobulated thinking about all that swiping.
I use ten highfalutin words where one simple word would suffice! 🙃🙃🙃
— VOXINDICA (@VOXINDICA) December 10, 2020
Highfalutin is one of those words that sounds expensive, but isn’t.
I follow dictionaries on Twitter.
— Erinys (@MegaraDeLaMer) December 10, 2020
Case closed.
Of course, word nerds aren’t the only type of nerds around—there are a lot more. Did you know these types of nerds also existed?
