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The forgotten meaning of "jerk"

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Re: The forgotten meaning of "jerk"

#21

Post by tombert »

Interesting. I'm thirty-something and I do seem to remember my grandparents using "jerk" to mean "idiot", but for my entire life I've always thought of it as a kid-friendly way to say "asshole".

It always confused me when my grandparents would call someone who was perfectly nice a "jerk", and it wasn't until I watched the Steve Martin movie four or five years ago that I understood why.

Re: The forgotten meaning of "jerk"

#24

Post by gerdesj »

sdrothrock wrote: post #20

The evolution of "jerk" makes me also think of "nimrod" and how it referred to the biblical hunter and meant someone with great skills in hunting, until it was used to refer to Elmer Fudd, at which point the meaning changed to mean a complete idiot. https://thehabit.co/nimrod-hectoring-maudlin-eponymns-and-pe...

Nimrod is a piece of music and an aircraft ... in my head, well before anything to do with a comic character.

Re: The forgotten meaning of "jerk"

#25

Post by permo-w »

The meaning changing without noticing thing is interesting but not hugely surprising to me. Besides a few cartoons on TV and maybe some films, in my early life I exclusively spoke and heard British English, but with the proliferation of American English via the internet, there are a lot of words that I know full well I originally pronounced in "British", but now I'm not really sure which is the "correct" pronunciation. "Lever" and "Leverage" are good examples of words where I noticed this and had to figure out which was which. Obviously there's a difference between pronunciation and meaning, and of course I'm aware of the shift, but it feels like a similar thing.

Re: The forgotten meaning of "jerk"

#26

Post by jvm___ »

jedberg wrote: post #12

When I hear jerk my first thought is always as the second derivative of velocity, because I had a TA in college who was specifically studying jerk as it relates to autonomous driving -- back in the 90s! So he taught us how to calculate it and its importance, because it turns out the car can handle a lot more jerk than the humans inside!

Apparently the trick for roller coasters is to keep the passengers hearts in the same plane so they don't perceive the ride as jerky.

Re: The forgotten meaning of "jerk"

#27

Post by simondotau »

bigstrat2003 wrote: post #5

I don't know why, but I went into this thinking it was going to be about soda jerks.

I went into this thinking it was going to be about culinary spices. But I had just finished watching a video on jerk chicken so my mind was already in the wrong place…

Re: The forgotten meaning of "jerk"

#28

Post by tayo42 »

simondotau wrote: post #27
bigstrat2003 wrote: post #5

I don't know why, but I went into this thinking it was going to be about soda jerks.

I went into this thinking it was going to be about culinary spices. But I had just finished watching a video on jerk chicken so my mind was already in the wrong place…

Don't get what people mean by jerking chicken when they make jerk chicken. Just applying spices I guess?

Re: The forgotten meaning of "jerk"

#29

Post by gausswho »

tunesmith wrote: post #10
nosioptar wrote: post #3

I prefer the term "douchebag" for its inclusivity. People of all ages know you're calling the person an asshole. I've also noticed Mormons are less offended by "douchebag" than "asshole".

Too bad it's misogynistic. I'm not sure you already knew that. If I were rude enough to call you a name, I wonder what term I could use that would work either way!

You could try scumbag, but you might not want to know what it originally meant.
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