Perhaps you've read the rash of articles this season trying to decipher whether Barack Obama is a certifiable geek. Apparently, geekism is related to techno-savvy and intelligence whereas nerdism and dorkitude relates more to social awkwardness and a fondness for Star Trek gang signs. This puts our President-elect in an awkward spot, since he seems to straddle these definitions.

But we Americans like our labels to be as accurate as possible, so a variety of journalists have fashioned a new word for Obama and perhaps others in his predicament: nerd-adjacent.

People who are not themselves fully steeped in nerd culture—but through partial traits and the proximity of friends find they are pretty darn close—can be classified as nerd-adjacent.