jerk = 'stupid person' (1928)

[Douglas G. Wilson]

On 3/6/2011 11:25 PM, Ben Zimmer wrote:
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society<ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Ben Zimmer<bgzimmer at BABEL.LING.UPENN.EDU>
> Subject:      jerk = 'stupid person' (1928)
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Brett Reynolds, on his "English, Jack" blog:
>
> ---
> http://english-jack.blogspot.com/2011/03/antedating-jerk.html
> Just now iTunes threw up Harry McClintock's 1928 recording of "Big
> rock candy mountain", which contains the line, where they hung the
> jerk who invented work. "Hey," my mind said, "I'll bet that's a very
> early recording of the word jerk." So I hied myself over to the OED
> website to check it out.
> Sure enough, a jerk, as in a stupid person, is listed in the OED as
> n.1 sense 5, and, as you can see, the first example is from 1935.
> ---
>
> HDAS has a cite from 1919 with "Jerk" used as a (presumably
> pejorative) nickname -- as discussed by Dave Wilton:
>
> http://www.wordorigins.org/index.php/site/comments/jerk_jerkwater_jerk_off_jerky/
>
> But I think 1928 would indeed be an antedating for a clear-cut use of the noun.
--

But some say it's "Turk".

At YouTube: supposedly the 1928 McClintock recording:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovKk_kPmAk4

... wherein I believe I hear "Turk".

Why "Turk"? Farmer & Henley et al. give "Turk" = "cruel hard-hearted
man" or so. There are other possibilities.

[As for the nickname "Jerk", I don't believe it must reflect a common
noun "jerk" referring to a person (although of course it could).
Conceivably the man with the nickname jerked because of a neurological
condition or sleep apnea, or maybe he was famous for driving a vehicle
unevenly, or for losing fish by jerking the line, or for some other form
of jerking, or .... Maybe extended context would be enlightening?]

-- Doug Wilson

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