Tech expert backed element of education in study (4)
I believe the answer is:
nerd
'tech expert' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both people as well as being singular nouns.
Maybe they are linked in a way I don't understand?
'backed element of education in study' is the wordplay.
'backed' says the letters should be written backwards.
'element of education' becomes 'r' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'study' becomes 'den' (I've seen this before).
'r' placed into 'den' is 'dren'.
'dren' reversed gives 'NERD'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for nerd that I've seen before include "Boringly studious person" , "Computer geek?" , "Irritating person (slang)" , "Feeble person (sl.)" , "Geek, anorak (sl.)" .)