Jerkwater Town

[Jonathan Lighter]

This explanation was so obvious to me that I didn't even bother to
explicate it in HDAS, which is fraught with "jerkwater" citations.

I do, however,  like the facile, colorful, and self-important phrase,
"the Piltdown hoax of etymology."

JL

On Sat, Dec 10, 2011 at 1:49 AM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Jerkwater Town
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Fri, Dec 9, 2011 at 11:16 PM, Garson O'Toole
> <adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com> wrote:
>> a system by which water troughs [are] fitted between the rails from which > a locomotive [can] scoop up supplies without stopping
>
> For some reason, this is the only explanation of _jerkwater_ with
> which I was familiar, before tonight. Perhaps that's because the
> Marshall, Texas, of my childhood was a jerkwater town.
>
> Youneverknow.
>
> --
> -Wilson
> -----
> All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint
> to come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
> -Mark Twain
>
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