Knowledge Hoarding Taxonomy

The Knowledge Hoarding Taxonomy, colloquially known as NGW, is a method of categorizing people by the nature of the knowledge they tend to hoard. The three types are nirëk (nerd), nenüm (geek), and nysnam (wizard). To refer to someone with an excess of a certain kind of knowledge, the prefix s- may be added to the English or Sajem Tan words, e.g. snirëk "snerd". These words are not derogatory, but can be used in playful teasing.

Nirëk
The nirëk, or nerd, amasses academic knowledge. Nerdiness is said to emanate from a well of knowledge in Xanz. Žirik (Fish) is said to be the snerdiest member of the tribe.

Nenüm
The nenüm, or geek amasses knowledge converning and participates in social or cultural pastimes, especially fandoms, such as television, sports, and music. Most celebrities are geeks (yes, including sports players).

Nysnam
The nysnam, or wizard, amasses knowledge concerning matters of mysticism or religion.

Cusp
Some things are on the cusp of two or all kinds of knowledge, and some things can be any of the three depending on what facet of the subject is emphasized. An example of a cusp would be sociology: it is the study (nerdy) of society (geeky). An example of the latter kind of cusp is mythology: an anthropological study of mythology is nerdy, an interest in literature based on mythology is geeky, and mythology itself is wizardly.

Origin
The taxonomy itself has its origins in a discussion on 3 Šëšën 31 (June 13, 2018) wherein the tribe was attempting to align itself along a scale with nerdiness on the one end, and geekiness on the other. Ţefam (Stone) announced that he could tell the difference was one of subject matter, but that he could not tell exactly what each meant. Tözen (Fog) defined nerdery as associated with academics and geekery with fandom. Fish suggested a third axis for mystical, esoteric, or religious knowledge, which Fog called "wizard".

Relation to the language
Sajem Tan has three words that translate the English verb "to know": fën "knowing persons or places", zet "knowing wisdom/silliness", and šyn "knowing abstract things". Fog eventually discovered that these words aligned quite well with the Taxonomy: fën is geeky, zet is wizardly, and šyn is nerdy.

Tözen Tan uses a grammatical gender system of "nerd", "geek", "wizard", and "cusp" instead of Sajem Tan's animacy system.