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jerkin

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Etymology and origin of the English word jerkin

Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˈd͡ʒɜː.kɪn/[1]
  • US: /ˈd͡ʒɝ.kɪn/[1]

jerkin1 short jacket

Confidence
Uncertain
First attested
1519 J. Raine, Volume of English Miscellanies

Etymology

The word for the jacket is of uncertain origin.[2][3][1] Several dictionaries call it unknown,[4][5][6][7][8] and Klein uncertain.[9] The OED, revised in 2019, thinks it probably related to Dutch jurk (“child's outer garment; woman's dress”), of the 17th century, and to Low German jurken (“child's baptismal gown”) of East Friesland, though it finds the relationship unclear.[2] One suggestion in the OED is an unattested Flemish diminutive with Middle Dutch -ken of journeye (“kind of outer garment”), from Middle French journée, borrowed early enough into English to keep the French initial consonant; the alternative is that the Low German word came from English, which leaves the origin unknown.[2] Skeat took it as a diminutive of the Dutch word.[10] Barnhart and Etymonline object that the Dutch word is too distant in form, since Dutch j normally corresponds to English y,[11][3] and Etymonline calls it a modern word of unknown origin.[3] Barnhart notes jerin (“cloth tunic”), probably before 1400, but finds it defective too.[11] Weekley thought of the name George, and Johnson of a Saxon word.[12][13]

Earliest recorded meaning

A man's close-fitting jacket or doublet: 1519, in a northern record printed in J. Raine's Volume of English Miscellanies.[2][11][5]

Semantic evolution

The jerkin, often of leather and with or without sleeves, was popular in the 16th and 17th centuries, worn over the doublet.[3][2][8][5] Johnson (1755) defined it as a jacket or close waistcoat, quoting Shakespeare's The Tempest and Gulliver's Travels.[13] In Scots and northern dialect it stayed in use for a short coat or under-waistcoat,[14] and the sense passed to a sleeveless jacket or long waistcoat worn by men and women.[15][8][5] Weekley noted a sale of surplus army jerkins announced in January 1920.[12] In Scots a jerkin was also a beating, a "jacketing", as in Scott's The Abbot, and in West Yorkshire the verb meant to beat.[14]

Timeline

  • 1519 – a man's close-fitting jacket or doublet.[2][11][5]
  • 1820 – in Scots, a beating.[14]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A short sleeveless, collarless jacket, worn by men or women.[8][5][15]
  2. (historical) A man's close-fitting jacket or doublet of the 16th and 17th centuries, often of leather.[2][8]

Word family

  • jerkined

jerkin2 cured beef

Confidence
Probable
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1612 J. Smith, Map of Virginia
Borrowed from
Quechua ch'arkini
Ultimate origin
Quechua ch'arki

Etymology

The word for the cured beef is apparently ultimately borrowed from Quechua ch'arkini (“to prepare dried meat”), from ch'arki with -ni (“to prepare”), probably through an unattested intermediary, probably Spanish, that carried it from the Andes to the Caribbean; charqui took a parallel path.[2] The OED compares charquear in American Spanish, and the later jerked, jerk and jerky.[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of beef, cured by being cut into long, thin strips and dried: 1612, jerkin beef, in John Smith's Map of Virginia.[2]

Semantic evolution

The word was used mainly in the phrase jerkin beef, now historical and rare, and an isolated verb is quoted from about 1625: "They jerkin salt or powder upp" turtles.[2] It survived in American regional use as a noun for beef jerky, recorded from 1954.[2]

Timeline

  • 1612 – jerkin beef.[2]
  • c. 1625 – as a verb, to preserve meat.[2]
  • 1954 – noun, beef jerky, in American regional use.[2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (US, regional) Beef cut into long, thin strips and dried; jerky.[2]

Adjective

  1. (historical, rare) Of beef, cured in this way; only in jerkin beef.[2]

Usage notes

Merriam-Webster Unabridged also enters jerkin, a male gyrfalcon, probably from ger falcon and -kin.[5] Wright records jerkin in Dumfriesshire and Galloway for a gathering, a kind of picnic meeting.[14]

References

  1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  5. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  6. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  9. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  10. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  11. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  12. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  13. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  14. ^ a b c d Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
  15. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Jerkin.” Etymologically, 6 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/en/jerkin. Accessed 7 Nov. 2026.

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