Aren't the meanings of "geek" and "nerd" translated into German contradicting with each other?

Question

Yesterday I was going to call some one "Streber". But I wasn't actually sure about the meaning so I went to leo.org and looked it up. The first suggestions had been "nerd" and "geek", what made me confused since I thought they are terms to express some ones expertness or maybe addiction to computers. So I looked up "nerd", which indeed translated to "Computerfreak" but also into "Streber". But this is actually confusing me. Because these are in my view two totally different things. Under certain circumstances I would even consider these German terms being contradicting each other.

While, on the one hand, a "Computerfreak" from my understanding is someone who tends to spend all his time at the PC and may even lose sight of other stuff like exercising if not related to computers, a "Streber", on the other hand, is AFAIK someone whose highest goal is getting stuff done for his own benefits while not letting anything distract him from it (like spending time on computers).
I actually found "grind" is most fitting for what I was looking for, but the question remained.

How does it come that an English word has two German meanings which may even contradict with each other?
Is this usual or an exceptional case?

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In case this is a problem of the English language and its way of usage for the terms "nerd" and "geek", this is probably the wrong platform and I'm asking for migration to "English language & usage"-SE.

But at the moment of posting I can't know what's the cause of the problem so I decided this site may be the better fit.

Answer 1

I would not translate Streber as Nerd or Geek. Those are three different things and especially, Nerd and Geek exclude each other.

A Streber studies a lot, loves school and has always best grades. I am not fluent in English but counterchecking the tranlsations of Streber in linguee.com, I would chose eager beaver. And is therefore not one of the cool kids. Because learning is so important, Streber often neglect friendship or they have troubles to find friends, because they are bullied in class or people just want to be friends with them to get good grades, too. An example is Hermione Granger from the Harry Potter books. In my understanding, a Streber can be additionally a Geek or a Nerd, but just being a Streber is not enough to be also a Geek or Nerd. Being a Streber is not nerdy or geeky.

A Geek is really into one topic, up to obsession. Geeks are social and usually don't brag with their knowledge but try to entertain. An example is Ron Weasley, the Quiddish-geek, who is obsessed with Quiddish and gives Harry Potter a long talk about Quiddish. I am a geek, too, because I could only think of Harry Potter examples. ;)

A Nerd is very intelligent, also often obsessed with one topic and socially akward. They tend to brag with their knowledge, but do not notice if they bore the other person. So instead of interacting with people Nerds prefer working with machines or do other non-social activities. They could be games like Chess or Go, but often they are computers/hard-and software/internet/coding. Being a Nerd often correlates with good grades, but not always. An example of an Nerd is Sheldon of the Big Bang Theory, who loves trains.

If I were a Nerd with fantastic grades without any study effort, I wouldn't call myself a Streber. On the other hand, probably my classmates would still call me a Streber, because they don't know how much I study at home. I also know that some Streber at my school, pretended to be Nerds (very intelligent without being hardworking). It is also difficult to judge the social potential of Streber if they are bullied, so they appear socially akward as Nerds. I think, this is the reason why Nerd and Streber are sometimes mixed up, even though they are actually two different things.

A Computerfreak is someone who is into computers/hard-and software/internet/coding. Although I would use the term anymore, because it has a negative connotation. A Freak is a very harsh name for monstrous people. Computernerd or Nerd, however, got a positive connotation since the sucess of Steve Jobs and Bill Gates. Now, being a Nerd is more related to a high income and intelligence, and the social akwardness is less emphasized.

More information in German about the difference between Nerd and Geek can be found here "Den Unterschied zwischen Nerds und Geeks erkennen".