Monument ([info]marnanel) wrote,
@ 2006-07-27 23:05:00
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Nargery
Since two of you have asked me tonight what "nargery" means, I thought I would tell you the story. It's a Cambridge word.

Once upon a time at Cambridge (so the story goes), before the days of state-subsidised tuition, there were two kinds of people you might meet. There were the gentlemen, the sons of the gentry and nobility, who were at the university because they could afford to be. They were often not very interested in academic work, preferring to spend their time rowing and hunting and gambling at Newmarket.

There were also the people who were there on scholarships because they loved their subjects, worked hard, and were fanatical about what they did. They would even talk about their subject in fascinated tones outside of lectures and tutorials— even, perhaps, at parties! The gentlemen of leisure looked down on these students, of course: they would call such a person a "narg", because he was Not A Real Gentleman.

So as time went on, people who talked shop outside the times when it was necessary were called nargs, doing so was narging, and the practice of indecently talking about your subject in public is nargery. Along with the great majority of compscis, I am particularly commonly guilty of it.

Does that make sense? [info]firinel points out that it's even in the Jargon File.


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[info]ldy
2006-07-28 03:49 am UTC (link)
Love it! Is it a soft "g" like "barging" and "forgery?"

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[info]marnanel
2006-07-28 03:51 am UTC (link)
Good question. It's hard, funnily enough, which isn't what you'd expect from the spelling.

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[info]rowan_leigh
2006-07-28 04:39 am UTC (link)
Or the derivation!

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[info]rethought
2006-07-28 07:57 am UTC (link)
The acronym for Not A Real Lady doesn't make into quite such a good word.
Too close to narly (or gnarly)...sounds surfer-esque.

Either way, I definitely fit into that. I'll talk the ear off anyone for text criticism or biblical languages grammar.
:)

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[info]9000
2006-07-28 10:06 am UTC (link)
Then, in which ways does "narg" differ from "nerd" or "geek"?
Surely it does, but could you illuminate it some more details of meaning?

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[info]pw201
2006-07-28 12:17 pm UTC (link)
I've never heard anyone actually called a narg in Cambridge. It's used as a verb ("narging") or the noun "nargery" is used to describe the practice of narging or the subject matter ("random linux nargery").

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[info]marnanel
2006-07-28 12:23 pm UTC (link)
It's important to explain the word in order to understand its (far more common) derivatives, though.

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[info]simont
2006-07-28 12:27 pm UTC (link)
I heard the noun "narg" every so often, in usages such as "he's a weapons narg" (he will go on and on about weapons if you let him) or "Nargs' Corner" (at a party).

On the other hand, I think in general one wouldn't unqualifiedly call a specific person a narg in the way that one might call them (say) a geek, implying a basically fixed aspect of their fundamental nature.

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Nargs' Corner
[info]timeheldinsepia
2006-07-28 02:22 pm UTC (link)
Now (after all these years!)I know where I fit in the universe.

Diolch!

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[info]phlog
2006-07-28 03:02 pm UTC (link)
Sounds like the early beginnings of the frat boy / geek university split.

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[info]susanc
2006-07-28 03:41 pm UTC (link)
We have people here at work who don't like to talk shop even *at* work! I don't think they're particularly gentry either.

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