[burgerbrain]

I always figured that "nerd" implied some sort of technical knowledge or scientific mindedness. Hence slashdot being "news for nerds, stuff that matters". Geek then I suppose, would be your standard comic book store customer.

Enough people use them interchangeably that it seems there is no longer any meaning. We should probably just jettison both words.

[thristian]

I don't know that I've observed people using the terms interchangeably, and the distinction between geeks and nerds is pretty constant - what does seem to happen is that people disagree about which label ("geek" or "nerd") goes with which category.

So, yeah, we probably should jettison both words.