Jerkwater Town

A listener asked about the term jerkwater town, as in “We were stranded in some jerkwater town with nothing to do and nowhere to go.” It means insignificant, small, inferior.

The term goes back to railroading. Steam engines were nothing more than boilers on wheels, where water was heated to the boiling point in order to get steam power. In larger towns, water towers were available for the trains to use. In jerkwater towns, they were not.

A jerkwater train was a branch-line train. It received its name from the fact that these trains were smaller than the main-line trains, so water had to be replenished far more often. The crews would have to stop at a river or stream and “jerk” water (draw it) from the source and carry it in buckets to the train.

From the 1941 Sun (Baltimore) 7 Mar. 12/7: “In the early days of railroads the small boilers of the locomotives required frequent refilling, and water tanks were very few. Every train crew carried a leather bucket on a long rope with which they ‘jerked water’ from the streams along their track. As locomotives increased in size the small ‘jerk-water’ engines were relegated to branch-line service. Today no train crew carries a bucket, but the name ‘jerk water’ still sticks and has become part of our national heritage of American slang.”


Now available from McFarland & Co.: Word Parts Dictionary, 2nd edition

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Riffle or Rifle?

During the second game of the Red Wings/Stars hockey series, an announcer said something like this: “We can rifle through our memory bank.”

To my ear, that sounded wrong. I had learned it years ago as “riffle through our memory bank.”

A quick trip to AHD-4 seemed to confirm my version. To riffle means “to thumb through (the pages of a book, for example).” That image fits searching the “pages” of our memory. To rifle was defined as “to search with intent to steal; to ransack, pillage or plunder.” But the last meaning threw a wrench into the works: “To search vigorously: rifling through my drawers to find matching socks.”

So I went to the online Oxford English Dictionary to see if I could settle the matter. For the most part, it also presented to rifle as an act of assault or robbery on an unwilling victim. But an obsolete 16th century meaning--“to examine or investigate thoroughly”--seems to have had a descendant: “To make a vigorous search through. ‘Visitors from all over the world rifle through the tweeds and tartans.’” [1978 Vogue Feb. 88/2]

To riffle is presented as “to thumb or leaf through,” used also in a figurative way. It’s what we do when we’re trying to find a particular passage in a previously-read book, or when we are flipping though our memory. “I was riffling through these morbid thoughts.” [1962 Listener 22 Nov. 845/2]

Without a more definitive source, I am left with the feeling that the amount of vigor used when searching your memory is the deciding factor. If your search is vigorous and agitated, you are rifling; if you are calm and methodical, you are riffling.

Or is this a distinction without a difference?

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There’s probably no connection, but riffle is also the name of a feature of coldwater streams--a shallow place where water runs fast over obstructions such as rocks, thus producing a broken water surface where trout can hide and feed.

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SIDEBAR: Washington State University

SIDEBAR: Grammar Without Grief


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Kudos

Q. It’s become practically a cliché to praise someone by saying “kudos to . . .” I’ve been told that it’s an acronym for Know (that) You Deserve Our Salute. Is that true?

A. Not a chance. The word does mean glory, fame, renown, praise -- all sorts of synonyms in that ballpark. But it’s not an acronym. It’s a word unto itself, and it came to us from the Greek word kudos, which meant glory and renown earned in battle.

The Oxford English Dictionary says that it started as university slang, which makes sense. The first citation given is from 1831: “He obtained kudos immense.” [Fraser's Magazine, III. 391] The fact that it appears in italics in that quote shows that it was still considered a foreign word at that time.

The strangest thing about the word is that it is singular. You will see it misused in back-formations as kudo, but there’s no such animal. There is, however, an African antelope known as the kudu.

SIDEBAR: Kudos, the game

Now available from McFarland & Co.: Word Parts Dictionary, 2nd edition

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Finger-lickin' good

The Latin word ligurire meant to lick or to pick away at food, the sign of a dainty eater.

The root showed up in several English words in the 17th century, but most of them have fallen by the wayside.

They are interesting because of their quaint nature. In particular, I find the first definition below to be delightful.

• abligurie: “Spending in belly-cheere.” [Cockeram, 1612]

• abligurition: “Prodigal expense on meat and drink.” [Bailey, 1742]

• ligurate: “To feed daintily.” [Cockeram, 1623]

• ligurion: “A devourer, a spend-thrift.” [Blount, 1656]

• ligurition: “Gluttonous devouring, greedinesse.” [Cockeram, 1623]

• obligurate: “To spend in belly-cheere.” [Cockeram, 1623]

• obligure: “To banquet, to feast.” [Cockeram, 1623]


Bailey, Nathan. An universal etymological English dictionary

Blount, Thomas. Glossographia, or a dictionary interpreting such hard words..as are now used

Cockeram, Henry. The English dictionarie, or an interpreter of hard English words

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Contumacious

The 2008 Traverse City Spelling Bee for Senior Citizens was held last Friday, and the performances were impressive, as usual. However, as Bee Master, I unwittingly created some feelings of dissatisfaction by including one of the words that took down a team.

I was surprised by the expressions of annoyance after the match, and I apologized for what was perceived to be the unfair insertion of an entirely esoteric word. I was a bit puzzled, since it’s a word that I’ve encountered all my life, but it may be worth pursuing for the sake of knowledge.

The word was contumacious [con-tuh-MAY-shus], and it is defined as obstinate; stubbornly disobedient; persistently, willfully, or overtly defiant of authority.

It comes from the Latin contumax (stem contumac-), stubborn or defiant. It also, according to Chambers/Murray Latin-English Dictionary, usually involved abusive, insulting, and demeaning language.

Now admittedly, it is not a word that will be found in most households, but it has been used in a few different contexts over the centuries, starting with the OED’s first instance in 1603. Some examples may help.

• “They solemnly denounced as contumacious . . . anyone opposing Dr Williams' appointment.” (Stephen Bates, "Solemn, arcane and ceremonial, church confirms its liberal new archbishop," The Guardian, December 3, 2002)

• “In all places too are Dissident Priests; whom the Legislative will have to deal with: contumacious individuals, working on that angriest of passions; plotting, enlisting.” (Thomas Carlyle, The French Revolution, Book 2.V)

• “Not far north of Pech-Merle, just short of a little village named Cras, lies a later relic of human society: traces of the Gaulish enclosed settlement known as the oppidum of Murcens, claimed by some to be the site of Uxellodunum, where in 52 B.C. Julius Caesar defeated the great chieftain Vercingetorix and, to discourage further opposition by the contumacious Gauls, chopped off the right hands of 6,000 warriors, thus eliminating Gaulish resistance to the Pax Romana.” (Peter Davison, "Province of the Past", The Atlantic, January 2001)

• “We believe trial judges confronted with disruptive, contumacious, stubbornly defiant defendants must be given sufficient discretion to meet the circumstances in each case.”
(Hugo LayFayette Black, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1937 to 1971)

• “Contumacy, or contempt of court, is an obstinate disobedience of the lawful orders of a court. Simple disobedience does not constitute contumacy. Such crime springs only from unequivocal and stubborn resistance to the reiterated or peremptory orders of a legitimate court, and implies contempt or denial of its authority. The general law of the Church demands that the citation, or order to appear, be repeated three times (in the United States twice) before proceedings declaratory of contumacy take place.” (Roman Catholic Canon Law)

• “Contumacious conduct defined. Contumacious conduct consists of verbal or non-verbal acts which:
1. Embarrass or obstruct the Court in its administration of justice or derogate from its authority or dignity;
2. Bring the administration of justice into disrepute; or
3. Constitute disobedience of a court order or judgment.”
(19th circuit, State of Illinois: RULE13.01 PROCEEDINGS IN CONTEMPT)

• “THE CONTUMACIOUS WITNESSES.; They Will Be in Washington Monday to Plead to the Indictments.” (Headline, NY Times, July 1, 1894, Wednesday)

If nothing else, I am relieved that I did not include a kissing-cousin in the word list, namely, contumely [KON-tuh-may-lee]: “insolent reproach or abuse; insulting or offensively contemptuous language or treatment; despite; scornful rudeness; now, esp. such contemptuous treatment as tends to inflict dishonour and humiliation.” (Oxford English Dictionary)

That would have started a proper rhubarb.


SIDEBAR: Contumacious, the radio station

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Kitchen Sink

Q. Jim Cramer of CNBC spoke of a certain company’s habit of “kitchen sinking” their financial reports. Do you know what that means?

A. To kitchen sink is to announce all of a company's bad financial news at one time. A company deliberately overloads a report or press conference to overwhelm the reader/listener. It’s a playful reversal of “everything but the kitchen sink.”

• “In the banking sector, UBS rallied from opening lows to add 2.62 pct as investors cheered the group's attempt to kitchen sink its subprime exposure.” [Thompson Financial News]
• “There is a general feeling on both Wall Street and Main Street that the financials attempted to bottle up all of their losses in one bad quarter. They tried to ‘kitchen sink’ the bit.” [Jutia Group: Market Jitters & Political Critters]
• “There's a whole chapter in the Hite book on unfair tactics men use in fights ... withdrawal, ridicule, teasing, emotional violence. But there's no mention of the classic female tactics ... like "kitchen-sinking", where she drags in ammunition from every battle they have ever fought, dredging her elephantine memory for past hurts, never-forgotten sins he once committed. [Bettina Arndt, "Are men really so terrible?" Sun Herald, November 8, 1987]

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Now available from McFarland & Co.: Word Parts Dictionary, 2nd edition

Subitize

Alex the parrot


Every once in a while, I come across a word that is new to me, usually something totally out of my field. This one comes from psychology, but it has worked its way into math discussions.

The verb is subitize, and the noun subitization has also been formed. It means to correctly perceive the exact number in a small set without actually counting. The Italian word subito means “at once,” and it is a descendant of the Latin subitus, sudden and unexpected.

The Oxford English Dictionary tells us precisely where the word came from in a 1949 citation of E. L. KAUFMAN et al. in American Journal of Psychology, LXII. 520: “A new term is needed for the discrimination of stimulus-numbers of 6 and below... The term proposed is subitize... We are indebted to Dr. Cornelia C. Coulter, the Department of Classical Languages and Literatures, Mount Holyoke College, for suggesting this term.”

Here is the word in context:

“The infantile sense of numbers is restricted to collections of only four or five objects, and the data suggests that infants and adults manipulate such collections using a mental process quite distinct from counting. For small collections, both adults and infants perceive the "numerosity" of the collection directly, somewhat like we perceive shape or color. This direct, intuitive perception of numerosity is called subitization, and it is the first number skill that we develop. When we see three objects, we don't count "one, two, three," instead we are simply aware of the group's "threeness." Most people can subitize up to seven or eight objects, switching to a variety of counting strategies for larger collections.” [Number Blindness: A Hidden Challenge for Mathematics by Ashish Ranpura]

Someone named Al has even created a game that utilizes “subitize.”

Sidebar: Subitizing: What Is It? Why Teach It? By Douglas H. Clements

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