I've been writing and editing automotive text for years and have always wondered where the word "zerk" (as in grease fitting) originated? Does anyone know?

Perhaps it's named for its inventor?

The automotive word world is full of this sort of thing.

Frank

the worthless word for the day is: zerk

[fr. Oscar U. Zerk, American inventor]
/zerk/ a grease fitting

"A zerk is a grease fitting on a machine,
a sort of hollow nipple, over which a grease
gun is fit, and through which grease is
applied to moving parts... Oscar U. Zerk
was born in Austria but lived in the United
States. In the 1920's, while working for
the Alamite Corporation, he invented the
Zerk fitting. He died in 1968 ... and
probably slid effortlessly into his coffin."
- Father Steve, at AWADtalk (July 1, 2005)

"The beefy arms themselves are thick, rounded
heavy-duty shafts made of 1 ¼-inch heavy-wall
DOM tubing, are zinc-plated and come with zerk
fittings and Grade 8 mounting bolts."
- Gabriel Sheffer, Four Wheeler, Jul 29 2005

-tsuwm
http://home.mn.rr.com/wwftd/

An article from 1934 in Time about Mr Oscar Ulysses Zerk.

Mr Zerk's US patent 1,619,454 for a lubricant receiving nipple was filed on 05 July 1923 and granted on 01 March 1927. I think it's probable that the public came to call a Zerk lubricant receiving nipple, just a plain old zerk. If you search the US PTO site for patents with the inventor Zerk you find a lot more lubricant-related inventions.

before

>> tsuwm: and
probably slid effortlessly into his coffin...

The word "zerk" according to Online Etymology;

sarcophagus
"stone coffin," 1601, from L. sarcophagus, from Gk. sarkophagos "limestone used for coffins," lit. "flesh-eating," in reference to the supposed action of this type of limestone (quarried near Assos in Troas) in quickly decomposing the body, from sarx (gen. sarkos) "flesh" (see sarcasm) + phagein "to eat" (see -phagous). The stone sense was the earliest in Eng,; meaning "stone coffin, often with inscriptions or decorative carvings" is recorded from 1705. The L. word, shortened in V.L. to *sarcus, is the source of Fr. cercueil, Ger. Sarg "coffin," Du. zerk "tombstone."

Another shared word.