This is probably the word which Shakespeare used as ‘geck’, meaning a fool. By the nineteenth century, in English dialect usage, it had taken on the variant forms: geek, gowk, gawk, etc. In American slang, where the word survives in modern...

The word geek is a slang term, noting individuals as "a peculiar or otherwise odd person, especially one who is perceived to be overly intellectual".[1] Formerly, the term referred to a carnival performer often billed as a wild man whose act usually...