“sideshow freak，”到1911年，美国嘉年华和马戏团俚语，可能是geck, geke“傻瓜，受骗者，简单的人”（1510年代）的变体，显然来自荷兰语gek或低地德语geck,来自北海日耳曼语和斯堪的纳维亚语中意为“呱呱叫，咯咯叫”的模仿动词，也有“嘲笑，欺骗”的意思（荷兰语gekken，德语gecken，丹麦语gjække，瑞典语gäcka）。比较gowk。
Green's Dictionary of Slang认为“来自西弗吉尼亚州查尔斯顿的瓦格纳，他有一个著名的巡回吃蛇表演”是这种“野人”表演名称的普及者，在这种表演中，表演者（通常被暗示为某种非人类）会吃或咬活蛇、虫子、鸡等。
At the highest point in the street was an empty store room in front of which, perched upon a large box, was a showman who was frantically calling in husky voice and waving hands, “He eats ‘em alive, he eats ‘em alive! O, yes, gentlemen, come right in and see the ‘Wild man from Samar’ — from the deep jungles of the far off Philippines! He eats rats, bugs and snakes alive! He eats ‘em alive, he eats ‘em alive! Only ten cents to see the wild man — walk right in, etc.” […]
Inside the empty store room were a dozen people gazing at the wild man who was confined in a cage in the rear end under a dim light, while a second showman stood just in front of this cage expatiating upon the wonderful nature and shocking habits of the untamed creature before them. The wild man had rather long red hair and beard, and was clad in an old coffee sack, and at frequent intervals would seize a whisp of straw from the pile on which he was seated and go through the motion of eating it, or would search in the straw as if for live food such as had been described as being his favorite diet by his master at the door. But finding none, he would fly into a fury and seize the cage as if to tear his way out. Then the keeper would cry out to the crowd to stand back — “Back, back gentlemen! Iloilo is dangerous when angry — don’t you see the crowd angers him? He’s hungry — we have not given him his supper yet — the supply of snakes gave out this afternoon — he's furious!” and striking the cage with a large iron poker he shouted, “Down Ilo, down!”
“Iloilo” having been successfully calmed, the exhibition went on for a short while till the last of the sightseers departed and the officers were left alone with the showman at the door. Stepping down from his box he exclaimed to the keeper inside, “Well, Bill, I guess the show's over in this town,” and invited them inside.
There, as soon as they had agreed to close the exhibition, the wild man caught the cage (an old hickory crockery crate painted black) and pitched it off over his head, and asked for a bottle of beer, several of which he consumed before he clothed himself and disappeared.
[Chaplain C.Q. Wright, “The Wild Man from the Philippines” The Sailor’s Magazine, July 1913.]
You see, if you take a pencil that won't hold lead,
Looks like a pipe cleaner attached to a head,
Add a buggy whip body with a brain that leaks,
You got yourself a grit eatin', pencil neck geek.
[Song "Pencil Neck Geek." By Johnny Legend (Martin Margulies) and Pete Cicero, 1977.]
I could not believe Bob Mack’s review of the new Danzig LP, How the Gods Kill [Spins, August ’92]. It’s not right for you to say that Glenn Danzig is a “comic book-collecting geek born in Jersey.” He is much more than that. He does what he believes in and believes in what he does. I collect comic books, and I am not a geek. Bob Mack, I hope you die at the hands of Lucifer.
Chris Allen
Fort Worth, Texas
[Letter to the editor from SPIN Magazine, Nov. 1992.]
在街道最高点是一个空的商店房间，在前面，一个表演者 perched 在一个大箱子上，疯狂地用嘶哑的声音呼喊并挥手，“他活吃它们，他活吃它们！哦，是的，先生们，快进来看看‘来自萨马尔的野人’——来自遥远菲律宾深丛林！他活吃老鼠、虫子和蛇！他活吃它们，他活吃它们！只需十美分就能看到野人——快进来，等等。” […]
在空的商店房间里，有十几个人盯着被关在后面昏暗灯光下的野人，而第二个表演者则站在这个笼子前，详细讲述他们面前这个未驯服生物的奇妙性质和令人震惊的习性。野人有着相当长的红色头发和胡子，穿着一袋旧咖啡袋，时不时地会从他坐着的稻草堆中抓起一束稻草，假装吃掉它，或者在稻草中寻找活食，如他的主人在门口所描述的那样。然而找不到，他会愤怒地抓住笼子，仿佛要撕破笼子逃出去。然后看守会对人群喊道：“退后——退后，先生们！伊洛伊洛生气时很危险——你们没看到人群让他生气吗？他饿了——我们还没给他晚餐——今天下午蛇的供应已经用完——他很愤怒！”然后用一个大铁钉敲打笼子，大喊：“下去，伊洛，下去！”
“伊洛伊洛”成功平静下来后，展览继续进行，直到最后一个观众离开，官员们只剩下和门口的表演者在一起。他从箱子上下来，对里面的看守说：“好吧，比尔，我想这个城镇的表演结束了，”并邀请他们进去。
在那里，一旦他们同意结束展览，野人抓住了笼子（一个旧的山核桃陶器箱，涂成黑色），把它扔过头顶，要求一瓶啤酒，他在穿上衣服并消失之前喝掉了几瓶啤酒。
[牧师C.Q. Wright，《来自菲律宾的野人》 The Sailor’s Magazine，1913年7月。]
到1949年，它还被定义为“任何不受欢迎的人。”在1970年代，这个词作为对一种无用、懦弱但自命不凡的人的侮辱而流行，由职业摔跤手“优雅的”弗雷迪·布拉西（1918-2003）通过他的口头禅“铅笔脖子怪人”普及。布拉西在1930年代作为马戏团表演者开始摔跤时就学会了这个词。退役后，他发行了一张名为Pencil Neck Geek的新奇唱片，在Dr. Demento Show上成为热门。
你看，如果你拿一支无法保持铅的铅笔，
看起来像一个附在头上的管道清洁器，
加上一个漏脑的马车鞭身体，
你就得到了一个吃 grit 的铅笔脖子怪人。
[歌曲《铅笔脖子怪人》。由Johnny Legend（Martin Margulies）和Pete Cicero创作，1977年。]
到1980年，geek在青少年俚语中被用来指“怪人”或“好学的人”，可能受到freak在这个意义上的影响。这个词的原始怪人表演起源仍然广为人知，这个概念被这些联想所影响，例如geek被认为是不洁的、粗俗的、畸形的、暴力的等等。在1980年代，这个词总是被用作侮辱，即使是被学术人士和科技爱好者使用；常常与wuss、dork、dipshit等互换使用。
我无法相信鲍勃·麦克对新的丹齐格LP的评论， How the Gods Kill [Spins，1992年8月]。你说格伦·丹齐格是“一个在泽西州出生的漫画书收藏怪人”是不对的。他远不止于此。他做他相信的事，相信他所做的事。我收藏漫画书，我不是怪人。鲍勃·麦克，我希望你死于路西法之手。
克里斯·艾伦
德克萨斯州沃斯堡
[致SPIN杂志的编辑信，1992年11月。]
在1984年流行的电影Sixteen Candles中，安东尼·迈克尔·霍尔的女孩狂热、技术爱好、社会被鄙视的角色仅被称为“怪人”，这个词的流行得到了提升。同年夏天上映的电影Revenge of the Nerds也 featuring 类似的角色类型，这种情况可能促成了geek和nerd变得或多或少同义。
从1989年起，这个称谓在大学俚语中变得中性，具有“知识丰富或有能力的人的”意义。在1990年代，它常常与另一个词搭配（film geek, computer geek等），不再 necessarily 带有贬义。
