By Steady Jerks

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hey, this is Nathan Browning. I live in Raleigh, North Carolina.

How are you guys doing today?

All right. Welcome to the show, Nathan.

I’m calling from Raleigh, North Carolina, because my grandfather said a phrase to me over Thanksgiving that I had not heard before.

He was preparing Thanksgiving for the entire family, pretty much.

So it was like kind of a stressful day for him.

When I was like, well, pop up, we’re going to sail through this thing, right?

And then he said, yeah, steady by jerks.

I said, steady by jerks?

He’s like, yeah, you know, steady by jerks.

I was like, I’ve never heard this before.

I was like, where does this come from?

He’s like, I don’t know.

Maybe something to do with the trains, though.

I was like, okay, maybe, but it seemed like a good question for you guys.

It basically means by fits and starts or unevenly or spasmodically or episodically, steady effort interspersed with interruptions and breaks.

So you’ll have a period of like steady attention to whatever you’re working on, maybe a break or, you know, somebody interrupts you.

And then you go back to it and you continue steadily on.

So instead of one steady effort, it’s a series of steady efforts, steadily by jerks.

Does that sound like what he was describing?

Yeah, it sounds exactly like what he was talking about.

I’d be curious to know if you guys know where the origin of this came from, like where this phrase came from.

He’s Pennsylvania Dutch, so.

Yeah, I don’t think it’s Pennsylvania Dutch.

It’s a long history, at least to the 1830s.

We’re talking almost 200 years.

And typically, I think it’s just a strange construction in English without a specific origin.

Although, there is one use I found in 1904 describes a stage scene with, quote, wooden angels moved steadily by jerks across the painted sky.

And you can just imagine, like, a rusty pulley and rope as the angels go across the top of the stage for this show.

It’s the same idea. You pull, they move. You pause until you pull again, and they move.

You find it again and again to talk about people pulling water up from a well steadily by jerks.

Steady or steadily by jerks, both of those constructions are used.

Usually with the verb move in front of it, move steadily by jerks.

I’ve also seen the phrase steadily by jerks like a frog swims or steadily by jerks like a frog walks, which is kind of the same idea, like doing the breaststroke or something.

Interesting.

It sounds like there’s a whole lot of ways I can figure out how to fit this into my day-to-day.

Yeah.

Absolutely.

So, yeah, not sustained effort, but episodes of sustained effort.

Episodes of sustained effort.

I love that.

Okay.

And that’s about how the day went, so that makes sense.

Well, I imagine if Pop-Pop was making Thanksgiving for everyone, he definitely needed to take some breaks.

Yep.

Sips some coffee in the corner by himself.

Right.

That’s exactly right.

Well, Nathan, thank you so much for calling us.

We really appreciate it.

Absolutely.

You guys have a great day.

Thank you so much for taking my call.

Sure.

Take care.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

If you’ve heard a word or phrase that you just can’t figure out, we’d love to talk with you about it.

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