Intermediate+ Word of the Day: jerk

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jerk (noun, verb)

/dʒɜrk/

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Jamaican jerk chicken

A jerk is any sudden movement like a twist, a pull, or a push. It’s also an involuntary and
sudden muscle movement. Colloquially, and mainly in the US, we call someone who is
inconsiderate a jerk. As a verb, to jerk means ‘to pull, twist, or push’ with a sudden
movement and also ‘to make an uncontrollable sharp movement.’ To jerk also means ‘to
preserve meat by cutting it into strips and curing by drying in the sun.’

Example sentences

The climber gave the rope a jerk to signal that he wanted to be pulled back up.
Ann's muscles gave a sudden jerk.
I can't stand that guy; he's such a jerk!
Angrily, George jerked the lid off the jar.

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 The car jerked sideways.
Sailors used to jerk their meat so that it wouldn't rot on long sea journeys.

Words often used with jerk

jerk off (slang, vulgar, mainly US): masturbate. Example: “Teenage boys spend a lot of
time jerking off in their rooms.”

beef jerky: dried, preserved beef. Example: “I always take beef jerky to snack on when I
go hiking.”

In pop culture

Jerk is a dance in which the dancers alternately thrust out their pelvises and their
shoulders. It comes from the twist but it’s now associated with hip hop. The verb to jerk
means to dance in this way.

Watch Video At: https://youtu.be/781JlPceBs0

Did you know?

Jerk is also the name of a type of seasoning used in Jamaican cooking or a style of
cooking using this seasoning. Meat is rubbed with or marinated in the spice mix before
cooking. Traditionally, jerk seasoning was used on chicken and pork, but these days you
can find seafood, vegetables, and even tofu cooked this way too.

Other forms
jerker (noun), jerky (adjective), jerking (adjective), jerkily (adverb), jerkingly (adverb)

Origin

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Jerk first appeared in English in the mid-16th century as a verb, meaning ‘to lash or strike,
as with a whip.’ A few decades later, the meaning widened to ‘pull sharply or suddenly.’
 The noun for this meaning closely followed the verb. The verb meaning related to
involuntary body movements dates to around the year 1600, but the noun for the same
meaning was not used until the early 19th century. The dance mentioned above appeared
in the 1960s, and is derived from this sense. The origin of the word is not known, but it
may come from yerk, meaning ‘to draw stitches tight’ (shoemaker’s term), thus making
the shoe ready to wear, from the Middle English yerkid, an adjective meaning ‘pulled tight’
(early 15th century), or the Middle English verb ferken ‘to move hastily or drive something
forward,’ and these may come from the Old English verbs fercian ‘to proceed,’ or
gearcian, ‘to prepare, make ready.’ Finally, the sense used to describe a person appeared
in the 1930s in America, and probably originated in carnival slang, but its origin beyond
that is a mystery.

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