Flavorwire

If you were ever teased in high school for being a nerd, you probably have Dr. Seuss to blame — him and those pocket protectors you insisted on wearing. Seuss’s 1950 children’s book If I Ran the Zoo contains the first printed usage of the word, as a strange little animal one might like to keep locked up: ”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!”