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OP
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Greetings all - been away for a while.
What's the etymology of jerk - as in dolt, buffoon? Or should I just stick with the "below the belt" obvious?
stales
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Welcome back, stales. Lotta water over the bridge since you were here last. Always nice to have another West Islander back in the fold.
I'd say, stick with the obvious below the belt reference. Never underestimate the power of the vulgar.
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Dare I ask, then, (not trying to turn this into a food thread...) about Jamaican jerk chicken? Eeeeeeeeewwwww. 
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Carpal Tunnel
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Dare I ask, then...about Jamaican jerk chicken?I've often wondered, Fiberbabe. Seriously, though: it's from the Quechua through Spanish. See http://www.bartleby.com/61/21/J0032100.htmlAlso click on jerky˛.
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addict
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Seriously, though: it's from the Quechua through Spanish.
From Bartleby.com...
jerky - Alteration of charqui...
charqui - American Spanish, from Quechua ch'arki...
How timely, it's a double Hobson-Jobson!
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According to what I learned in AP Physics, in technical usage, a jerk is a change in acceleration, as acceleration is a change in velocity. That probably has nothing to do with the etymology, but I thought I point that out. 
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Carpal Tunnel
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a jerk is a change in acceleration... probably has nothing to do with the etymology,
Well it might but I won't say anything about it for fear of being accused of having my mind in the gutter.
What? Am I crowding you?
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Pooh-Bah
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From Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, WW Skeat:
JERK to give a sudden movement, throw with a quick action. (E.) Cotgrave has: "Fouetter, to scourge, lash, yerke, or jerke." In Shak. as a sb., L.L.L. iv. 2. 129. "A ierk, verber;" Levins, ed. 1570. "With that which jerks [lashes] the hams of every jade;" Bp. Hall, Satires, b. iii. sat. 5, l. 26. Lowland Sc. yerk, to beat, strike smartly; a smart blow. "To jerke or gerke;" Minsheu, ed. 1627. "A girke or yerke of a rod or whip;" Minsheu's Span. Diet. (E. index). Halliwell also gives: "Girk, a rod; also, to beat." Another form is jert. Cotgrave has: "Attainte, a reach, hit, blow, stroke, ... a gentle nip, quip, or jert, a sleight gird, or taxation." Moreover, the words jert and gird were regarded as equivalent; thus Sherwood has, in his index to Cotgrave: "A jert or gerd, Attainte." The words jerk, jert, and gird are probably all connected, and all had once the same meaning, viz. to strike, esp. with a whip or rod. The only one of these three forms found in ME. is gurden, girden, to strike; see gurden in Stratmann. ... It may be added that the usual meaning of jerk in old authors is to whip, to lash; as partly shown above.
From Slang and Euphemism Dictionary, Richard Spears:
jerk 1. to masturbate. [British, 1800s] 2. a masturbator. From JERK OFF (sense 2). For synonyms see HUSKER [US Slang, 1800s-pres]. 3. an oaf or incompetent fool. The connection with sense 1 is rarely recognized [except on the AWAD board]. [US slang, 1800s-pres] ...
I shall now snigger whenever I speak of the Nebraska Cornhuskers, for reasons other than their basketball prowess.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Jerky - I am surprised that this word should be of South American Indian, then Spanish origin. I have seen the word in many stories about the explorers in North America learning to preserve meat for travel this way from the American Indians. There is another word, Pemmican, with fat and berries added to give something approaching a balanced diet during long journeys.
dried lean meat, pounded into a paste with fat and preserved in the form of pressed cakes
2 dried beef, suet, dried fruit, etc., prepared as a concentrated high-energy food, used for emergency rations, as on arctic expeditions
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OP
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re: "...always good to have another West Islander back in the fold."
Don't force me to bring the Bledisloe Cup into the conversation. Or the Rugby League tests. Or the cricket. Do you guys HAVE any swimmers? There haven't been any runners since John the Schnoz retired. And your netballers only won because of a one-woman South African team.
More than happy to be friends with your lot on the 25th of April (or when you're playing the old foe) - after that it's by appointment.
Remember - your people ONCE were warriors.
Hehehehehe
stales
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your people...Bledisloe Cup...Rugby League tests...cricket
Mind you, stales, as an US'n I'm strictly neutral here.
Dunno what all this jabbering about cups and tests and insects is about. Around here if it's a cup it's parbly got coffee in it (we're more likely to call it a mug, however); I din't know you had to pass some kind of test to play (is that the right verb here?) Rugby and we got crickets but we got grasshoppers and cicadas, too.
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Carpal Tunnel
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A wonderful bird is the pemmican,
whose craw holds as much as a semi can.
With absolutely no apologies to Ogden Nash. None. Zip.
TEd
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What is a beef jerky? Is this name connected with 'sense 1', and if so, who would eat such a snack?
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Carpal Tunnel
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A hundred years or more ago, when canning and refrigeration had not been invented, and salt was quite expensive or not locally available, beef in small strips could be dried and taken on long trips by explorers, for example. This was called beef jerky. Life sustaining, but definitely not a gourmet treat.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Dr. Bill has described this treat quite well. It is very hard to chew but there are those who like it in small quantities.
In the '70s I had a young friend who was bitten by a rattlesnake. The doctor he got had just read an article suggesting that the best thing to do for a snake bite was to leave it alone. Either he had not read the entire article or there were other mitigating (sic) circumstances, but my friend barely survived the experience. He had gotten to the stage where he was lying at death's proverbial door in the hospital, unwilling to eat hospital food. His parents, knowing his like for beef jerky brought him a tavern size jar of the disgusting little things. He devoured about two-thirds of the stuff. The protein rush combined with the flushing effect of the massive quantities of sodium (they are quite salty) and the water he had to drink to quench the thirst they inspired in him cleared his system of the buildup of toxins from the medical mishandling and dragged him kicking and screaming away from death's proverbial door.
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who would eat such a snack?There was a meat store near our old place where you could buy beef or chicken jerky. My husband really liked it. I even found the chicken stuff bearable myself. (So did the cat, who ate through the bag to nibble on the jerky one day when we were out!  )
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and speak to anyone from Seth Efrica!
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Carpal Tunnel
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No, of course its not releated to 'sense 1' and as for who would eat such a snack?[ it interesting how food, once prepared as way of preserving it, can now be viewed as good in its own right. Pickles-- or sour kraut, or salt cod-- and jerky in all its forms ( some are just salted and dried, others are spiced and smoked dry) have become food that are enjoyed to some degree as much as the fresh foods they are made from.
[almost a rant]
it seems to me to be part of the same impulse that in the beheading thread, wanted to replace the term beheading with a latin term or greek term.. as if some how, giving the word game a fancier name made it "more important"
I think that if the people of the cultures that first produced beef jerky where given the option of canned meat (even something like spam), or portable refridgeration, and fresh or frozen meat, they would have abandoned jerky in a NY minute!
It is a fondness for the good old days. a kind of mythical experience. Jerky is interesting because it is a snack food-- not the only from of protein you'll see 4 months..
I am sure Dr. Bill remembers from his early training, how prevalent stomach cancer once used to be-- the most common cancer.. as refridgeration became available, stomach cancer became less and less common.. when fresh, healthfull food became the norm, the cancer all but disappeared--
We mythically harken towards the good old days that weren't really all that good-- and give word games latin and greek names-- to some how make them less like fun-- and more "scholarly" -- and so justify our playing them![/almost a rant]
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