jerk water , gozen

[Wilson Gray]

On Jun 17, 2005, at 6:09 PM, Mullins, Bill wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Mullins, Bill" <Bill.Mullins at US.ARMY.MIL>
> Subject:      jerk water , gozen
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> --------
>
> jerk water, jerkwater -- OED has 1878 for the railroad sense and 1897
> for the attributive, general sense
>
> [railroad sense]
> KENTUCKY.
> New York Times; Sep 24, 1865; pg. 2 col 6.
> "A little jerk-water engine, which looks as if it was stuck together
> simultaneously with the building of Noah's ark, runs "wild" through
> this wild region as often as they get a load of people and other
> things."
>
> [attributive sense]
>
> Nevada | Reno | Nevada State Journal | 1878-01-18 p. 2 col 2. "The
> Undeveloped Wealth of Humboldt County"
> "Leaving the railroad at Mill City in company with an old friend, who
> has stuck to Humboldt through all her dark days, we bounced over
> twelve miles of rough road in a jerk-water stage wagon, that
> threatened to dislocate my spinal column in six different places at
> once."
>
> Illinois | Decatur | The Decatur Morning Review | 1890-01-09 p. 2 col
> 1.  "An Old Chronic"
> "He is a jerkwater politician who lives down on Spring Avenue,and who
> has an uncontrollable inclination to win bread by constantly crying
> out the very superior excellence of his particular brand of
> patriotism."
>
> gozen -- not in OED
>
> Nevada | Reno | Nevada State Journal | 1878-01-18 p. 2 col 2. "The
> Undeveloped Wealth of Humboldt County"
> "Leaving this promising mine we passed half a mile further north up a
> steep hill aad long, narrow ravine, to a vein of what is known among
> miners as "gozen." This is a mixture of iron, lead and silver with
> vein matter and the whole completely oxydized. This gozen vein is ten
> or fifteen feet thick and is so soft that it can be almost shoveled
> out.
>
> This is an odd little word -- I don't find it anywhere else in
> ProQuest, or the digitized historical newspapers of Colorado or Utah,
> either Making of America, or any other of the American databases I
> have access to.   But later on in the article, it refers to Cornish
> miners.  So it may be of English origin.

Uh, with respect to Cornish, that's "... may be of _British_ origin."
given that Cornish is a Celtic language.

-Wilson Gray

>
> The [London] Times, Friday, Apr 15, 1825; pg. 2; Issue 12628; col A
>      Cornwall and Devonshire Mining Company.-Capital, £500,000, in
> 10,000 Shares of £50 each.
> Category: Classified Advertising
> "I entertain a favourable result of these mines when put to work, from
> the appearance of the gozen or back of the veins, which, in my opinion
> are similar to those which have made considerable quantities of copper
> in depth."
>