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The first documented appearance of the word “nerd” is as the name of a creature inbook(1950), in which the narrator Gerald McGrew claims that he would collect “a Nerkle, a Nerd, and atoo” for his imaginary zoo.(The nerd itself is a small humanoid creature looking comically angry, like a thin, cro Chester A.Arthur)Themeaning of the term dates back to 1951, whenmagazine reported on its popular use as a synonym for “” or “” in ,.The third appearance of nerd in print is back in the United States in 1970 in Current Slang :“nurd, someone with objectionable habits or traits...An uninteresting person, a ”dud“.By the early 1960s, usage of the term had spread throughout the United States, and even as far as Scotland.At some point, the word took on connotations of bookishne and social ineptitude。-------美国传统词典

Now:1.a person who is boring , stupid and not fashionable.2.A person who is very interested in computers.但是，随着互联网革命，比尔.盖茨等计算机精英在社会上取得的成就，使nerd 的轻蔑色彩越来越少。随着计算机的普及，被形容为Nerd 越来越让人感到高兴。

Retard

Formal:to make the development or progre of sth slower

Offensive Slang: used as a disparaging term for a mentally retarded person.A person considered to be foolish or socially inept.The word ”retard“ began to be used to describe the ”mentally challenged“ in the late 19th century to replace words like ”idiot“, ”imbecile“ and ”moron“ all of which had started being used as insults and had originally been used as medical labels for different low IQ ranges.Considering that ”retard“ was invented for the purpose of not being offensive and all it meant(before being used as a euphemism)is ”to slow or impede“ suggesting the individual is just ”slow" how is it considered offensive now? Also, does the history of the word mean that people who claim it is offensive(and that people who use it are being ignorant)are actually the ones who are ignorant as they are clearly ignorant of the word's history(or they would not consider it offensive?)