Dork: Would You Know a Dork If You Saw One?
Monday July 7, 2003
In spite of what you're apt to read on any of over 10,000 Web pages, the word "dork" does not mean (and has never meant) "whale penis." I defy anyone who says otherwise to show it defined as such in any respectable dictionary.
Though its true origins remain somewhat of a mystery, etymologists say dork — usually defined as a stupid, foolish, or inept person — has only been in common use since the 1960s and is most likely a variant of dick, which is, in fact, a slang term for penis, though not specifically that of a whale.
All this is by way of saying that if you ask me, the rightful definition of a dork is the sort of person who would make up something like this.
Read more about 'dork':
• WordOrigins.org
• Online Etymology Dictionary
• American Heritage Dictionary
• Merriam-Webster Dictionary
Though its true origins remain somewhat of a mystery, etymologists say dork — usually defined as a stupid, foolish, or inept person — has only been in common use since the 1960s and is most likely a variant of dick, which is, in fact, a slang term for penis, though not specifically that of a whale.
All this is by way of saying that if you ask me, the rightful definition of a dork is the sort of person who would make up something like this.
Read more about 'dork':
• WordOrigins.org
• Online Etymology Dictionary
• American Heritage Dictionary
• Merriam-Webster Dictionary
Comments
Actually Ripley’s Believe it or Not has a whale penis and refers to the object as a dork.
Animal Planet referred to the penis of a Gray Whale as 5′6″ long and called a Dork.
That was December 8, 2006
It’s a Dork, It’s a Dork, HaHa, it’s a Dork!
It is a dork. Look in the new translation of Webster’s. Not only that but skim through Nautical literature dating back to early 20th and 19th centuries and they commonly refer to a whale’s penis as a dork. So get it right…whale penis.
As a female reader of 76 I don’t understand why I get a bussiness site of “Hairy Banana’s” to look at when I open it when I am academically searching for the meaning and etymology
of the word ‘dork’ that I happen to read in Time Magazine of march 12, 2007, page 50 ??? Anyway, now I know I must update my Webster. Thank you
i am a seaman and lived on ships for over thirty years, all the men i’ve known have reffered specificy to a bone that is inside the penis as a dork, also a racoons hill billys and sailors alike would play jokes with these passing them on to unsuspecting new comers as “ivory” i’ve seen a hill billy tell a young guy that the one from a racoon was to be used as a tooth pick! if you stuffed shirts could remember any thing before political correctness, you would know that picking on “the new guy” was quite a sport. once the subject is told that what they have in ther hand is a dork they are allowed to keep carrying it around. eventually asking every one what’s a dork, a common remark was “you are” a dork!!!
Maybe the original word is a combination of ‘dick’ and ‘pork’?
well someone had to come up with that name,do all animals have a name for there penis,if not the dorks have something to work on.
well dork has two meanings. 1) whales penis. 2) Dick less . If you don’t believe me get yourself an dictionary, but not one of those new one. one that is around 50 year or older. it’s in there.
These days the term ‘dork’ is used in the same manner as calling someone a ‘nerd’ or a ‘geek’ which I believe to be completely idiotic. Instead of correcting people to the actual meaning of the word we let it fly. Britney Spears and one of the Olsen twins have both been quoted as referring themselves as dorks. So they’re ignorant…no surprise there.
In the animated film “Heavy Metal” the character Den (while naked) makes a reference that he’s not going to go around with his dork hanging out and then covers himself with a loincloth. In the book “The Prehistory of the Far Side” by Gary Larson, Mr. Larson makes a reference where his editor told him he couldn’t use the term ‘dork’ because it meant penis.
Let’s be smart about it and use the term correctly. Just because morons the term incorrectly shouldn’t mean their definition is correct. Dork means penis…plain and simple.
although “dork” meant and still does mean penis there is another usage of the word dork which refers to the geek, nerd and dork society. still geek, nerd and dork does NOT mean the same. a geek usually is a person who is highly fascinated by a certain topic - and highly fascinated means like absolutely crazy about it. more often than not this topic is about science, fantasy, IT or all of those three.
a nerd on the other hand is a person who is like goddamn intelligent but usually has very weak social abilities. nerds tend not to have many friends and those they tend also to be nerds. the main difference between nerd and geek is that geek usually doesn’t need to imply a social weakness while nerd does so. the second difference is, that nerd usually does imply a highly natural amount of intelligence whereas a geek is only highly interested in certain topics of which he knows quite a lot although he doesn’t need to be of much intelligence at all.
a dork as the third term of that social phenomenon usually is a dumb and social weak person. the differences between that three terms are kinda subtle, but still there are some… and anybody who says that geeks, nerds and dorks are all the same has absolutely no idea of that social phenomenon at all.
ps: are we living on 1950? i don’t think so… so why should we get a dictionary which is about 50 years old? did you try to look up “internet” in that dictionary? if you won’t find it in there, does that mean for you that it doesn’t exist?
Hey Evkaristo,
You’re a dork for coming up with such a response. What a douche nozzle…
What the hell is a douche nozzle anyhow?
Who cares how people use the term? Can definitions and slang not change? There’s all kinds of slang used in the 20’s that’s not used anymore. You people are taking it way too seriously. Silly whale penises.
http://fusionanomaly.net/whales.html
nuff said.
i looked up dork on the internet and came across this picture.
http://z.about.com/h/g/1417.jpg
seriously, how is this an “urban legend”? and how about doing some research before challenging facts, not just going to google and hitting the “i’m feeling lucky” button.
Look at the URL, not to mention the ones above.
I do not understand why people have to recreate a word and turn it in to something totally different.
Another example: GAY Christmas carols take on a whole new meaning that was never intended.
Why can’t people just come up with a brand new word? Are they too stupid?
Hmmm…maybe they a dork!
(Sigh)
Seriously! Who cares how people dinfine or use a word. This is the 21st century. Like anybody cares what it means. I use the word dork for fun; for someone being silly. Now, that’s a dork!
David Emery here is just pointing out facts.