Akademik

n.

All nerds considered as a group. Also nerd-dom.

Eulogizing E. Gary Gygax, "the Father of Dungeons & Dragons," is a lot different than coming up with postmortem praise for, say, a great playwright or a titan of literature — Gygax's accomplishment makes him more like the person who first conceived staged drama, or the guy who came up with the idea for books. Before D&D there was nothing like D&D; its advent created nerddom as we know it, and changed culture forever.

—Darren Zenko, "Dungeons, dragons and destiny," The Toronto Star, March 9, 2008

As I've said before, I'm a proud member of Nerd Nation. But even nerddom has its standards — they're what separate us from the geeks and the dorks. That's why, rightly or wrongly, I've pretty much left science fiction to the pasty, basement-dwelling virgins.

—Christopher Lawrence, "Battlestar Galactica' successfully recruits new member," Las Vegas Review-Journal, March 24, 2008

'It took me two years to adjust to American educational life,' Miss Mahaffey said. 'The girls wore makeup and shaved their legs and wore hose and knew how to do their hair and talk to boys. Minutes after they turned 13 they stopped being smart because the boys didn't like it. I was 15 and had great study habits, and I was a total, dateless nerd in terms of American Southern womanhood.'

When she was 17 she fell in love with a schoolmate named Ben: 'Together, we pulled each other out of nerddom,' she said.

—Nan Robertson, "Tigers or 'top girls,' Valerie Mahaffey adjusts," The New York Times, April 1, 1983

The related term geekdom is much more popular (it appears in the media about five times as often as nerddom), perhaps because it's easier to pronounce, or perhaps it's somehow easier to imagine geeks as a group than nerds. Geekdom also dates from the mid-80s, as the earliest citation shows (although this citation is referencing the "outrageous performer" sense of the term (think: circus geek)):

It shouldn't surprise anyone that Riggins would behave in an outrageous manner. What's black-tie to John Riggins? Caveat emptor. If it's John Riggins you want, it may well be John Riggins you get. And it may be that a headstrong pursuit of geekdom is what that dinner deserved.

—Tony Kornheiser, "Riggins' Snooze Is Not Up to His Standards," The Washington Post, February 2, 1985