History of the word "Nerf."

[Tipsy]

Did you know the word "Nerf" (Used to describe something that was weakend) was invented in Ultima Online?


At one point, the game developers weakend sword damage in melee combat so much that the players complained that it was like they where hitting each other with Nerf Bats.

Nerf is an anagram for non-expandable recreational foam (nerf), used in things like stress toys and as projectiles of some toy guns. See image below:




Popularity of the phrase made it so that whenever something was made worse, it was considered 'nerfed.'

[InuTrunks]

Re: History of the word "Nerf."

Isn't this common knowledge? Maybe I'm just that old o.O?

[Armando]

Re: History of the word "Nerf."

It's Nerf or nothing.

[KoukiRyu]

Re: History of the word "Nerf."

It's Nerf or nothing.

lol I'm having a bad day, thanks for making me laugh Armando.

[Armando]

Re: History of the word "Nerf."

No prob, man (/girl? I've never been able to figure your gender out.) Man, those Nerf cannon things were so cool 'til you shot all 5 balls and had to pick them up all over again. Those were the days, really - when all a kid needed was some variety of NERF toy, Super Soaker, or Laser Tag to wage war on your neighborhood friends on a daily basis. Oh, and water balloon "grenades." Those are always a classic.

Staying on topic, I never knew that's what the original acronym stood for, (though Wiki says it's unconfirmed.)

[KoukiRyu]

Re: History of the word "Nerf."

I'm a guy, lol. @_@

And yea...those guns were so much fun...I hated the ball one though, I had this leet little dart shooting one that I used to carry almost everywhere. >_> God I was such a dork, but I had fun. :]

And it's good to know where nerf comes from I guess? I dunno, nerfing is good sometimes, and sometimes bad. Depends on what side of the nerf you're on at least. >_>

[Akashimo]

Re: History of the word "Nerf."

Wow, thats new to me @_@;
Heh, I remember when the nerf super soakers was still big in TV commercials on Nick. And when they had those water tanks you were come with them just came out. Plus random just remembered those sketchers shoes with the blue/green ooze you press in them o.O

[Tipsy]

Re: History of the word "Nerf."

It's okay to stay off topic, I mean, Nerf guns are badass. They got this new one called the "Longshot" it's like the first Nerf Sniper Rifle ever, it's pretty hardcore. I'd love to shoot someone in the face with that bad boy.

...anyway.

Man, those Nerf cannon things were so cool 'til you shot all 5 balls and had to pick them up all over again.

And you're right, the only down-side to the Nerf guns was when you had to go Dart Hunting after you unloaded a clip or two onto an un-suspecting victim.

They shouldn't even have added the sucktion(sp?lol) cup to the tip of the dart-guns because, 90% of the time they're shot at people and not windows..

[DanteTheArbitrator]

Re: History of the word "Nerf."

I have a Nerf shotgun and Revolver,
Its great fun shooting people...
I never knew where the term came from though so thanks for the info Tipsy.

[Tipsy]

Re: History of the word "Nerf."

I have a Nerf shotgun and Revolver,

Oh man, I played Russian Roullete with the Revolver once, fun as hell. That and some drunken hardcore fun-noodle jousting in the shopping carts at toys r us gotta be my two favorite past times.

[Jrgsubzero]

Re: History of the word "Nerf."

You know, My friends and me used to just take the foam off of the sticks and beat the crap out of each other.

Good times.

[DieselBoy09]

Re: History of the word "Nerf."

My aunt had one of those bats for stress relief. My brother and I found it when we were moving her out of her apartment, needless to say, we ended up in a sword fight, eventually shattering the plastic handles, sending shards through out the room.

[Auron517]

Re: History of the word "Nerf."

Oh, oh! Do you guys remember the big-ass Nerf Bazookas they sold? You put the foam shell on the top of the gun, and there was this handle on the back of it...you had to pump it like three whole minutes just to fire it?

And when you did, you had to put it back on and pump again? It was kinda fun, but after awhile you stopped playing with it due to a case of extremely sore hands. Don't make 'em like that anymore! Lol.

[Armando]

Re: History of the word "Nerf."

Holy. Shit. The Longshot looks so sweet. For that matter all the new Nerf guns look awesome, makes me want to go out and buy some.

http://www.hasbro.com/nerf/default.c...trike_blasters

[KoukiRyu]

Re: History of the word "Nerf."

Hahahaha...I think my friends would actually fight me if we got some of these, lol. Me and a friend saw a Nerf gun rip-off the other day, it was like a Gattling(sp?) gun, and we were about to by it right there, just to ambush my other friend when we got home, lol. This is making me remember all those times of playing Nerf, and now I really want some. xD


And yea, the Longshot looks super bad ass, lol.