# Don't be such a jerk! **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 23, 2003, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-be-such-a-jerk/150467 "2003-01-23T16:15:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Floater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/dc4da7/32.png) [@Floater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Floater)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2003, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-be-such-a-jerk/150467/1 "2003-01-23T16:15:54Z")
Whilst we were sitting around a bar table yesterday discussing life, the Universe and everything someone claimed that the word **jerk** (as used in the title of this thread) is derived from the Swedish name **Jerker** (a pet form for Eric BTW) and of Minnesotan origin. Does anyone have the straight dope on this? Merriam-Webster didn’t cover it. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2003, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-be-such-a-jerk/150467/2 "2003-01-23T16:30:53Z")
The derivation is correct on the name aspect. > [@](#): > > JERK m Swedish > Old Swedish variant of ERIK > > JERKER m Swedish > Old Swedish variant of ERIK > > SOURCE: [Behind the Name: t h e e t y m o l o g y a n d h i s t o r y o f f i r s t n a m e s](http://www.behindthename.com/nm/j2.html) It would seem there is no connection of the name to the common meanings of jerk today however. > [@](#): > > **jerk** (v.) - 1550, “to lash, strike as with a whip,” of uncertain origin, perhaps echoic. Sense of “sudden sharp pull or twist” first recorded 1575. Meaning “involuntary spasmodic movement of limbs or features” first recorded 1805. > > **jerk** (n.) - 1935, “tedious and ineffectual person,” Amer.Eng. carnival slang, perhaps from jerkwater town, where a steam locomotive had to take on boiler water from a trough between the rails because the train didn’t stop there. This led 1890s to an adj. use of jerk as “inferior, insignificant.” Probably also infl. by jerk off, slang for male masturbation (first recorded 1916). Sense in soda jerk attested from 1883. > > SOURCE: [Online Etymology Dictionary](http://www.geocities.com/etymonline/j1etym.htm) ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2003, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-be-such-a-jerk/150467/3 "2003-01-23T16:35:25Z")
Nah. It’s a shortened and associated meaning from _jerkwater_. Short-run locomotives that served only the local areas frequently carried very little water, rquiring them to stop rather frequently to refill. The water tanks were usually near sidings or small stations and the water was procured by “jerking” the hose down to the boiler tank (much in the manner of the spigot at a bar or soda fountain that gave us _soda jerk_). The towns and the trains that served them came to be called _jerkwater towns_ and _jerkwater trains_ and jerkwater became synonymous with insignificant (and, with the usual opprobrium attached to small farming communities, extended to uneducated or foolish). (Late 19th century.) _Jerkwater_ was then applied to people who were supposed to come from such backward places, and later shortened to _jerk_. (Early 20th century.) Some time in the 1940s or 1950s, it picked up the nastier meaning that is employed in the **SDMB** , rules, “Don’t be a jerk,” (_i.e._, a small-minded, petty, person whose behavior is offensive). The “small town resident” to “dumb farmer” to “nasty person” transformation of words is fairly common, in English, with _boor_ and _churl_ following the same path. There may be some inoffensie Minnesotan farmer named Jerker, but he did not lend his name to the word. ---
**Author:** ![Floater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/dc4da7/32.png) [@Floater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Floater)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2003, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-be-such-a-jerk/150467/4 "2003-01-23T16:38:38Z")
Thanks to both.