141–142 of 142 posts
I was born in the early 60’s, and I don’t recall my elders ever using “jerk” in what the OP calls the original sense. I have always understood it in the “modern” sense.
IF, that is, your memory is better than Dave Berry's...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
the British slang version of the word "cheers" is a very good example of this. I can tell you for absolute certain that the most people use the word "cheers" to mean "thanks", but if you go online and look up the definition, you will be told it also means goodbye, which it really doesn't, but I think this arises from the fact that it's a bit more relaxed form of thanks, so people frequently say it as thank you at the…
People who tell you that it also means "goodbye" are correct. It is an alternate form of "cheerio". It's not in popular use now , but it's recorded with this sense in mid-20th-century dictionaries. Indeed, one 21st century Partridge's records "cheers" meaning "goodbye" (1960s) as pre-dating "cheers" meaning "thank you" (1970s).