I was just talking with my wife about the Steve Martin film “The Jerk,” and got to wondering: Has the term “jerk” undergone semantic drift over the years? I grew up in the 80s, and the whole time the word was pretty much synonymous with “asshole,” or somebody that is purposefully contemptible. But when I encounter the word in pre-80s contexts, I feel like it’s more a “buffoon/idiot” than an “asshole.” Am I right in this impression, or has the word pretty much kept a consistent meaning?
I was under the impression that the insult derived from the job “soda jerk”. I always kinda thought people of the 40s and 50s looked at soda jerks the way some people today look at fast food workers – as either kids who don’t care or adults who can’t get better jobs. So maybe “jerk” was once a term for “low paid doofus”? Just my WAG.
I was also wondering if there was some connection to the profession. Etymonline, though, says its of unknown origin.
Soda jerk does well pre-date this sense of the word, but that etymology is the somewhat obviously related to the jerking motion used in pulling the tap.
And, also, that “tedious and ineffectual person” definition is different from what I’ve always perceived “jerk” to mean in my lifetime. So there does seem to be a good bit of drift in the meaning of the word (unless my modern understanding of the word has been wrong for the last three and some decades.)
I think you’re definitely right. A jerk used to be a loser, not ill intentioned. It might have been a path through ‘acting like jerk’ to associate intent with bad actions instead of haplessness.
The term “jerkwater train” dates from the 1870s, and refers to a small locomotive on a branch railway which is not adequately supplied with water tanks, etc. From time to time the loco would have to stop while the crew used a bucket to get water from a convenient source to replenish the water supply - a slow and boring job, since steam locomotives use a lot of water, and it would take many bucketfuls to top one up. This is not the kind of work that inspired small boys to dream of becoming engine drivers.
From there we fairly rapidly get concepts like a jerkwater job, a jerkwater town, etc, etc to describe low-grade work, or an insignficant place.
I suspect that this is the true origin of “soda jerk” - it’s low-grade work handly soda water rather than plain water. (I don’t really think you “jerk” a soda tap, do you? A steady pull is what’s called for.)
But, to go back to the OP, yes, I think there has been a shift in meaning. A “jerk” originally meant someone who did a low-grade, low-status, unskilled job, or who was only fit for such a job. At some point it transitioned to meaning someone who takes pleasure in being unpleasant or overbearing. I suspect the influence of “jerk off”, implying the solitary pursuit of pleasure, may have helped shape this development
Growing up in the 50s and 60s around the Cleveland OH area, “jerk” always had the “asshole” connotation. It was most commonly heard in the sentence, “Don’t be a jerk.” or “Don’t be such a jerk.”
I think it was milder than “asshole”, but that was a word I’d never have used until I was a teen.
I’m going by what the etymology dictionary says.
Oh, it’s certainly not as strong as “asshole,” but I’m saying it describes behavior in that sort of direction as opposed to ineptitude, buffoonery, lack of skill, etc., as seems to be more of a description of Navin R. Johnson in “The Jerk.” (And not just there–I definitely know I’ve had to shift my understanding of the term when I hear it in older contexts. Although now we have someone attesting that in the 50s and 60s they grew up with what I consider the modern meaning.)
Still means intentional asshole, but the secondary meaning of schmuck is sometimes encountered. So it’s since gained nuance, but not completely different. Impossible to tell intended meaning without context.
Compared to asshole, it’s more mild. A decent person can be a jerk, temporarily.
Well, I bow before the authority of the etymology dictionary, naturally. But were soda taps really worked with a “sudden spasmodic motion”?
I’m saying that in my observation, it didn’t have the intentional asshole meaning originally, but now it does.
AS I said before, it definitely meant that to me growing up. I was perhaps not quite clear when discussing the relative strength. What I should have said was I’d never have used “asshole” as a young child. As a teen I’d have used “asshole” when talking to my peers, but would never have said it around adults. “Jerk” would have been safe to say. So the difference to me growing up was one of audience. “Asshole” was to me a stronger word because it was naughty something I could not say in front of parents and so carried more weight among peers.
A.J. Pollock, Underworld Speaks (1935):
Jerk - a boob; chump; a sucker.
Yeah, that’s the sense I get from early usages. Perfect. Now that I think of it, maybe I first noticed it watching Merrie Melodies or Looney Toons as a kid where the “contemptible person” definition didn’t jibe with the context.
Over here the word is hardly ever used a pejorative description. The nearest equivalent I can think of would be “wanker” (One who masturbates because he can’t get a girlfriend). We have adopted a great many merkinisms but this is not one that has caught on.
As any competent physics student knows, “jerk” is the technical term for the third derivative of distance with respect to time. First derivative is velocity (a change in distance), second (a change in velocity) is acceleration, and third (a change in acceleration) is jerk.
This is why, when I see someone driving erratically, I say, “Look at that jerk!”
Former soda jerk here (from early 50s when drugstores had soda fountains). No we didn’t jerk anything. A firm push on the syrup dispenser and a pull on the seltzer dispenser. The latter being much like dispensing beer on tap. The term, unlike unadorned jerk, was not pejorative, purely descriptive.
While I’ve always assumed (and seem to be correct) that the term soda jerk comes from pulling the soda tap, I never imagined it to be a literal spasmodic motion. Poetic license people! Soda jerk sounds more colorful than soda puller or soda pull.
I have believed all my life that ‘jerk’ was a contraction of ‘jerk-off’.
Nah, the competent students know the distinction between position and distance, and know that the former is what one needs to differentiate, not the latter.