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It is interesting that the meaning of"jerk" has moved very recently from meaning something like "bumpkin" to something closer to "arsehole". As the author poin
by adrianratnapala 9y ago
It is interesting that the meaning of"jerk" has moved very recently from meaning something like "bumpkin" to something closer to "arsehole". As the author points out, this is similar to the change in the meaning of "villain", along with several other words where a class-based insult eventually became moralised.
But most of the words he mentions are old words that changed their meaning back in the days when litteral aristocrats, kings, dukes and princes ruled the English speaking lands and their neighbours. "Jerk" changed recently and I wonder if the change hints at a new class system.
- nerdponx 9y agoJerk has been synonymous with "rude person" as long as I've been alive. If there was a shift, it wasn't all that recent.
- KGIII 9y agoI near sixty. It has meant arsehole since I was a kid, with one exception. Namely, the soda jerk. That usage was still part of the vernacular when I was young. I am not sure what timeframe they are using for reference.
- cperciva 9y agoAnd yet "rude" itself has also changed -- from meaning "unsophisticated" to meaning something more along the lines of "obnoxious".
- wfunction 9y agoIs not saying hello when you see someone that you would normally be expected to say hello to not considered "rude"? It is to me, but it's not obnoxious...
- cperciva 9y agoThere's a reason I said "more along the lines of" -- I was having trouble coming up with a definition which was precise without being circular. In any event, I'm sure you can agree that "rude" no longer means simply "unsophisticated".
- Noos 9y agoSteve Martin's movie "The Jerk" is the older usage, and it's dated to 1979.
- jayd16 9y agoBut wasn't he a bumpkin that turned into an asshole once he struck it rich?
- jacobolus 9y agoIf you’re interested in this kind of thing, I recommend CS Lewis’s book Studies in Words, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Studies_in_Words https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Studies_in_Words