Today is Be a Dork Day. That got me to thinking about the word Dork. I remember dork, nerd, geek, and terms like those at one time being insults or certainly not something you’d call your best friend. The terms geek and nerd are no longer used as insults… when people are referred to as a nerd or geek, people don’t “look down” on them — while the may be “quirky” they’re usually held to a normal “level of esteem”
Not so, with dorks, though. A dictionary definition of dork is, “a socially inept, unfashionable, harmless person.” Naturally I did some extensive research on the term and was surprised to find that many, many Internet sources claim that the word “dork” is derived from a part of the whale’s anatomy. However, I couldn’t find any reliable source that indicated that the word is in any way associated with whales. I did discover that apparently the earliest known use of the word in print occurs in a novel published in 1961 — “Valhalla,” written by Jere Peacock. A character in that book says, “You satisfy many women with that dorque?” The context appears to refer to a male sexual organ, but the spelling is different, so I’m not sure dork derived from dorque — but, I suppose it could be.
So once again my extensive research has failed to produce a definitive answer… but no matter. Today is Be a Dork Day, so if you happen to be one, I guess you should be proud of it and bask in the glory of the day. And I guess if your secret desire is to become a dork, today might be a good chance to go for it.
To all dorks and wannabe dorks, enjoy your day along with all it has to offer….
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