Here are the Wordnet definitions, if that matters:

geek: a person with an unusual or odd personality

nerd: an insignificant student who is ridiculed as being affected or boringly studious, or:
an intelligent but single-minded expert in a particular technical field or profession

dork: a dull stupid fatuous person

from: http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn

Interesting, I always thought of them as synonyms. However, I'm not a native speaker.

From my experiences I think nerd, geek and otaku all imply some sort of "uncoolness" and carry at least some negative connotations, so even if I'd qualify, I'd rather not call myself that way.

Dunno about dork though, haven't heard that word a lot.

If you google "geek nerd dork Venn diagram", or something to that effect, the most common result in images looks like this:

Most of the people I hung out with during my year in a US college identified themselves as nerds. However they didn't mind having the adjective "geeky" applied to them, though they still preferred "nerdy". "Dork" and "dorky" were out of the question, and I had never even heard the word "dweeb" before I first saw that Venn diagram. And this is my favourite take on the whole semantic debate:

Haha this is great. You had me laughing on that last diagram. : DD

I guess in the end it just doesn't matter.

Those diagrams are really amusing! XD

Interesting point on regional variation between the words. I always thought of them like this:

Geek: Someone who is very knowledgeable/good at something, and usually pretty passionate. Usually a complement among younger people. The opposite of anti-intellectual.

Nerd: Same as above, only socially inept, and their talents are typically academic. Usually an insult, except maybe among people who regard themselves as such. I think ガリ勉　might be closer to what I think of as "nerd" than オタク.

Dork: Someone who is stupid, and usually socially inept.

Though I guess it really doesn't matter, it is interesting that there are so many variations in meaning in just those few words...

More on geeks, nerds and オタク (in Japanese, from English source): http://gigazine.net/news/20120105-geek-vs-nerd/

Bokusenou Wrote:Geek: Someone who is very knowledgeable/good at something, and usually pretty passionate. Usually a complement among younger people. The opposite of anti-intellectual.

Hnnnmmm, 'among younger people' is key there. Many web sites identify themselves as 'geek' websites. A lot of deliberate effort has been made to 'reclaim' the word geek only without the usual fanfare that goes with 'reclaiming' a term. (At least, I'm not aware of anyone marching in Washington D.C. on this issue... )

Ahem. Anyway, what I really wanted to say is that among my father's generation 'geek' and 'pencil-necked geek' were synonymous. Even intelligent, mathematically and scientifically oriented people like my father wouldn't have called themselves geeks. A geek then was, pretty much by definition, a 99-pound weakling with horn-rimmed glasses and a pocket protector (so his pens, pencils and slide rule wouldn't mess up his oxford shirt... ).

There's been something of a turn of social opinion towards intellectuals in the last century, plus with the advent of PDAs and their evolution into smartphones, nobody needs pocket protectors anymore, it's all digital now.

There are, of course, camps that proudly call themselves nerds as well as camps that proudly call themselves geeks. I refuse to take either term as an insult, in any case, as they basically are supposedly derogatory terms for 'intelligent person'.... if you ignore the derogatory tone and focus on the 'intelligent person' part the attempted insult is really pretty laughable!

('dork', however, despite the earlier venn diagram, has never been a term particularly associated with intelligence. Dork is really synonymous with 'stupid', and in a clumsy way, or was when I was in high school, or possibly with someone who's interests are not mainstream regardless of their intelligence. People reaching for an insult to throw don't usually check the dictionary - unless they fall in one of the groups under discussion perhaps - so it's a little fuzzy.)

I have a feeling that all these words actually go back quite a bit further than anyone's living memory, but I can't quite recall what I might have read about their etymology or find the energy to go look again.

SomeCallMeChris Wrote:'dork', however, despite the earlier venn diagram, has never been a term particularly associated with intelligence. Dork is really synonymous with 'stupid', and in a clumsy way, or was when I was in high school, or possibly with someone who's interests are not mainstream regardless of their intelligence.

I don't see how this contradicts the diagram. According to it dork=obsession+social ineptitude=nerd-intelligence. I suppose that was the best way the author of the diagram thought he could reconcile the two meanings that you mentioned. After all, 'nerd', 'geek' and 'dork' are all used for people with unusual interests, but neither 'nerd' nor 'geek' have a connotation of low intelligence (again, I have no idea about 'dweeb').

Oh, my bad. I was thinking 'dork' was in the 'dweeb' position. I don't really know about 'dweeb', never heard it used very much.