jerkwater
/ˈd͡ʒɚk.wɔ.tɚ/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 0.00 in modern English
23
Scrabble Score
9
Letters
3
Syllables
7
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
adj
Of an inhabited place, small, insignificant, and backward.
American usage; Colloquial; Derogatory
Example Sentences
- "[…] by bailing from near streams with buckets, (the brake-man called this operation jerking water) and from this the road gets its name of jerkwater road."
- "Twenty-five miles down the narrow arid highway, there is another town like Napoleon, a little smaller. And then twenty-five miles further, another. This chain of jerkwaters stretches for a lazy afternoon, until you finally encounter a cluster of people that almost resembles a modern civilization, with a movie theater and chain restaurants."
Etymology
From jerk (“to move with a sudden movement”) + water. Refers to the need to supply the boilers of steam trains with water. In rural areas and small towns with no water tower, where the train did not stop, this was done by scooping ("jerking") water from a track pan. First appears c. 1852, in the Miami County Sentinel (Peru, Indiana).
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈd͡ʒɚk.wɔ.tɚ/
Usage
- American usage
- Colloquial
- Derogatory