'Cool' geeks no longer boring and unattractive social misfits

A new survey suggests that the word geek is now considered a compliment rather than a term of abuse.

While the term was once used to describe a person with unfashionable interests or way of dressing, it seems the rise of technology entrepreneurs and social media pioneers has changed that.

The survey found 46 percent of those asked would prefer to have Stephen Fry, famous for his love of language and gadgets, around for dinner rather than Justin Bieber, Katy Perry, Natalie Portman or Tom Cruise, who combined only made 30 percent of the votes for the choice of dinner party guest, Metro.co.uk reported.

The survey, carried out by ad agency Inferno, shows that Doctor Who and Sherlock are on our list of favourite TV shows, beating Jonathon Ross, Celebrity Juice and 24hrs in A and E.

Cerebral pastimes reading, current affairs, exhibitions and watching documentaries each proved to be more popular than pursuits of the body beautiful, fashion and working out, combined.

Ian Brookes, of the Collins dictionary, told The Times a geek as a "boring and unattractive social misfit" had been replaced with a "less derogatory" definition.

A geek is now "a person who is preoccupied with or very knowledgeable about computing", he said.

He added the dictionary's editors were tracking geek as they are "increasingly encountering the word in contexts other than computing and with increasingly positive connotations".

The Inferno survey also found 44 percent of respondents were into computer games, comics and sci-fi, four times as many compared to reality TV.