Nuts and Bolts: Nerdic.

Who speaks Nerdic?
 
Well, you do.
 
Nerdic has billions of speakers. It may even be the most widely-spoken language in the world.
 
I think that's hugely exciting.

What is it? Well, now we have the internet a word can travel round the world and establish itself more or less everywhere more or less at once.

And that's what's happening with many new words, especially those that are to do with technology.


"It's incredible that I can describe an N96 with HSDPA, Wi-Fi with a 5 megapixel Carl Zeiss and GPS and be understood across Europe," said Stuart Miles of pocket-lint.com "although Brits may still be confused when they hear the French talking about their 'wee-fee'!"

Ah. So that's what they were on about.

I thought it was something to do with coin-operated lavatories.

 Language To Use Today: Nerdic. The word Nerdic seems to have been coined in 2008 by the Pixmania website. The first documented appearance of the word nerd is the creature in Dr. Seuss's book If I Ran the Zoo (1950), in which Gerald McGrew declares he will collect "a Nerkle, a Nerd, and a Seersucker too" for his imaginary zoo. The slang meaning of the term dates back to 1951, when Newsweek magazine reported on its popular use as a synonym for "drip" or "square" in Detroit, Michigan.