Jerk
mid 16th century (denoting a stroke with a whip): probably imitative.
wiktionary
Probably from Middle English yerk(“sudden motion”) and Middle English yerkid(“tightly pulled”), from Old English ġearc(“ready, active, quick”) and Old English ġearcian(“to ready, prepare”). Compare Old English ġearcian(“to prepare, make ready, procure, furnish, supply”). Related to yare.
From American Spanish charquear, from charqui, from Quechua ch'arki.
etymonline
jerk (v.1)
"to pull with sudden energy," 1580s; earlier "to lash, strike as with a whip" (1540s, surviving only in dialect), of uncertain origin, perhaps echoic. Intransitive sense of "make a sudden spasmodic motion" is from c. 1600. Compare Middle English yerkid, an adjective apparently meaning "pulled tight" (early 15c.), which has the form of a past participle. Also compare Middle English ferken "move hastily; drive (something) forward," from Old English fercian "to proceed." Related: Jerked; jerking.
jerk (n.1)
1550s, "stroke of a whip," from jerk (v.1). Sense of "sudden sharp pull or twist" is by 1570s. Meaning "involuntary spasmodic movement of limbs or features" recorded from 1805. As the name of a popular dance, it is attested from 1966.
jerk (n.2)
"tedious and ineffectual person," 1935, American English carnival slang, of uncertain origin. Perhaps from jerkwater "petty, inferior, insignificant" [Barnhart, OED]; alternatively from, or influenced by, verbal phrase jerk off "masturbate" [Rawson]. The lyric in "Big Rock Candy Mountain," sometimes offered as evidence of earlier use, apparently is "Where they hung the Turk [not jerk] that invented work."
A soda-jerk (1915; soda-jerker is from 1883) is so called for the pulling motion required to work the taps.
The SODA-FOUNTAIN CLERK
Consider now the meek and humble soda-fountain clerk,
Who draweth off the moistened air with nimble turn and jerk,
[etc., Bulletin of Pharmacy, August, 1902]
jerk (v.2)
"preserve (meat) by cutting into long thin strips and drying in the sun," 1707, American English, from American Spanish carquear, from charqui (see jerky). Related: Jerked.
