I suspect that this response, while true and adorably Liz-like, is not helping Laura one bit. ;) Although I do think that overanalyzing the taxonomy of dorkitude may be a sign of dorkiness.
That said (*g*), my response to Laura's question would be that I think "dorky" and "geeky" can be used fairly interchangeably in many contexts, except that "geeky" is also frequently used to describe particularly focused or directed behaviors, i.e. you're a computer geek, a musical theater geek, etc., that have become codified in our understanding. We know what it means to be a particular type of geek. Similarly, we know what it means to be "fannish" about something. And those behaviors can be taken fairly seriously. But "dorky" seems to enter the picture during self-aware moments when we realize that spending twelve hours a day for two weeks painting tiny plastic figurines in colors that match the descriptions of characters' clothes in a series of fantasy novels and getting into a heated argument about how shades of blue reflect character motivations is, on some core level, a fundamentally *ridiculous* set of behaviors and we pause to laugh at ourselves...or at least smile ruefully as we vow never to share paint tubes again with anyone who doesn't pass an ideological screening. "Dorky" (or the more general use of "geeky") is the underlying quality of personality that leads us to these behaviors. The dorky list items, therefore, tend to be examples that express this underlying quality in a way that...well, if we were talking about fiction, we'd say it's stuff that reveals character rather than simply advances plot or describes surroundings. And the character that is revealed should be, well...ridiculous and/or obsessive and kind of endearing.
And if I'm not making any sense then what else is new? Anyway, that's my attempt at a descriptive (rather than a prescriptive) delineation of meaning(s). As such it is necessarily incomplete (if not wholly YMMV).
no subject
That said (*g*), my response to Laura's question would be that I think "dorky" and "geeky" can be used fairly interchangeably in many contexts, except that "geeky" is also frequently used to describe particularly focused or directed behaviors, i.e. you're a computer geek, a musical theater geek, etc., that have become codified in our understanding. We know what it means to be a particular type of geek. Similarly, we know what it means to be "fannish" about something. And those behaviors can be taken fairly seriously. But "dorky" seems to enter the picture during self-aware moments when we realize that spending twelve hours a day for two weeks painting tiny plastic figurines in colors that match the descriptions of characters' clothes in a series of fantasy novels and getting into a heated argument about how shades of blue reflect character motivations is, on some core level, a fundamentally *ridiculous* set of behaviors and we pause to laugh at ourselves...or at least smile ruefully as we vow never to share paint tubes again with anyone who doesn't pass an ideological screening. "Dorky" (or the more general use of "geeky") is the underlying quality of personality that leads us to these behaviors. The dorky list items, therefore, tend to be examples that express this underlying quality in a way that...well, if we were talking about fiction, we'd say it's stuff that reveals character rather than simply advances plot or describes surroundings. And the character that is revealed should be, well...ridiculous and/or obsessive and kind of endearing.
And if I'm not making any sense then what else is new? Anyway, that's my attempt at a descriptive (rather than a prescriptive) delineation of meaning(s). As such it is necessarily incomplete (if not wholly YMMV).