November 09, 2004

Trekker vs Trekkie

In a conversation today, I hesitated because I didn't know whether to use Trekker or Trekkie. I thought the difference was one of those fundamental pieces of knowledge that most people know, but some of us were kind of fuzzy on when it was explained to us, rather like the theory of relativity. I have since deduced that my circle of friends had a relatively high geekness factor, for it is not commonly known that there IS a difference, let alone what that difference is. I was shocked when I did a quick search on Google and the first site, Wikipedia, actually grouped the two terms together as if they were one and the same. Or maybe, the Wikipedia entry was written by a Trekkie, who simply doesn't mind being called either.

Since I vividly remember the fact that there was a distinction being made clear to me, I conclude I was associating with Trekkers.