What does nerf, or nerfed mean?

Ive gone through the posts here hoping to find out what "nerf" means, and no answer.

I am probably gonna slap myself in the forehead and say "DUH!" when i find out what it means. But i am tired of seeing it used so often and only pretending to know what it means exactly.

Made worse.

Something like that.

Elite Skill - Ban Hammer: You deal 24-60 damage.

Anet changes the skill:

Elite Skill - Ban Hammer: You deal 20-50 damage.

The skill is now nerfed. As opposed to buffed, which would have made the skill 'better'.

Wiki has a nice explanation too.

You can see some more here, but basically: "To make worse or weaken"

When a skill or build is nerfed, it means it's made weaker and/or unusable.

and my forehead is now sore... thank you for the quick replies.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nerf

The term comes from the popular brand of toy foam/dart guns. Ie, a deadly weapon is metaphorically "nerfed" and changed into piece of plastic.

When anything is "nerfed," it means it's made softer, weaker, and it has less of an impact, like if you compare a baseball bat and a Nerf Baseball Bat.