Jerkwater Town

[Douglas G. Wilson]

On 12/10/2011 8:36 AM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society<ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter<wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Jerkwater Town
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> 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:
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>> Sender:       American Dialect Society<ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       Wilson Gray<hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
>> Subject:      Re: Jerkwater Town
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>>
>> 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. ....
--

At least the current notion makes sense.

I note that the earlier-mentioned blog entry --

http://verbmall.blogspot.com/2008/05/jerkwater-town.html

-- has (in the final section) the suggestion that "jerkwater" referred
to drawing water from a tower (i.e., not necessarily from a trough).

If "jerk-water" originally referred specifically to scooping of water
from a track pan, there may be a little problem with time (and maybe
place). "Jerkwater stage" (with seemingly appropriate sense) dates from
1869 (HDAS) while some sources date the implementation of the Ramsbottom
system in the US to 1870. ("Jerkwater" seems to be an Americanism.)
Incidentally, the Ramsbottom system may not have been used much in the
western US (needs adequate water supply, traffic volume, preferably
moist climate and moderate temperature, I think).

-- Doug Wilson

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