jolt

Etymology

The origin is obscure.^[2][3][4][5] The OED finds that the word looks like an alteration of obsolete jot, to bump or jostle, which has largely the same senses and is recorded from 1530, under the influence of jowl and perhaps of jolt-head, a blockhead, known from 1533.^[2] Merriam-Webster Unabridged, Collins and Dictionary.com call it a probable blend of jot and dialect joll, to bump, a variant of jowl;^[6][7][8] Merriam-Webster takes jot as probably imitative.^[6] Barnhart and Etymonline suggest instead an alteration of Middle English jollen (“to stagger; perhaps to knock, batter”),^[9][10] which the Middle English Dictionary tentatively traces to chollen and jolle.^[11] Skeat and Partridge thought it first meant to knock on the head, the jole or jowl.^[12][13] The OED also reports the suggestion that the verb is a back-formation from jolt-head, and sees phonetic and semantic difficulties in it.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

To shake someone up from a seat or place with a sudden jerk: 1598, in Marston's Scourge of Villanie,^[2] though Merriam-Webster Unabridged dates the transitive verb to 1596.^[6] The noun appears in 1599, in Minsheu's Spanish–English dictionary, for a knock of the head against something.^[2][9]

Semantic evolution

The sense of butting or nudging with the head or elbow, which the OED records from 1611 to 1778, and the noun's "knock of the head" point to the link with jowl, while the other senses match jot.^[2] The noun meaning a jarring shock or jerk followed in 1632.^[2][9] Johnson (1755) defined it as a shock or violent agitation, quoting Gulliver's Travels.^[14] Vehicles were said to jolt along intransitively from before 1703,^[2][10] and riders from 1730.^[2] The figurative use, to startle, is first found in Mark Twain: the verb in Roughing It (1872) and the noun in Huckleberry Finn (1884).^[2][10] In the 20th century American slang made a jolt a drink of liquor (1904), a prison sentence (1912) and a dose of a drug, which the OED dates to 1916 and Green's Dictionary of Slang, for an injection, to 1907.^[2][15] Early slang also used the verb for having sex, as in Dekker and Webster's Westward Hoe (1607).^[15] In Sussex dialect a jolt was a stupid person.^[16]

Timeline

• 1596 – to shake with a sudden jerk.^[6] The OED's first record is from 1598.^[2]
• 1599 – noun, a knock against something (obsolete by 1618).^[2][9]
• 1607 – slang, to have sex.^[15]
• 1611 – to butt or nudge (obsolete by 1778).^[2]
• 1632 – noun, an abrupt shock or jerk, especially in a moving vehicle.^[2][9]
• before 1703 – intransitive, of a vehicle, to move along with jerks.^[2][10]
• 1872 – to startle, surprise.^[2][10]
• 1884 – noun, a surprise or mental shock.^[2]
• 1904 – slang, a drink of liquor.^[2]
• 1907 – slang, an injection of a drug.^[15]
• 1908 – a blow in boxing.^[2]
• 1912 – slang, a prison sentence.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To shake or knock with a sudden jerk, or to carry along with a series of jerks: The cart jolted us all the way to the station.^[6][7][2]
2. To move along with abrupt, rough jerks, as a vehicle on an uneven road.^[7][2]
3. To startle or shock; to disturb someone's composure.^[7][6][2]
4. To hit hard in boxing.^[6]
5. (obsolete, 1611–1778) To butt or nudge.^[2][5]

Noun

1. A sudden sharp jerk or blow, especially in a moving vehicle.^[7][6][2]
2. A sudden shock or surprise: The news gave the whole town a jolt.^[7][6][2]
3. A jarring blow in boxing.^[6][2]
4. (slang) A drink of liquor.^[2]
5. (slang) A dose of a drug.^[2][15]
6. (slang) A prison sentence.^[2]
7. (obsolete, 1599–1618) A knock of the head against something.^[2][17]

Word family

• jolter
• jolty
• joltingly
• joltless

Related words

• jot
• jowl
• jolt-head

References

1. ^ a b 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 r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 32 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
8. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
9. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
10. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
11. ^ Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
12. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
13. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
14. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
15. ^ a b c d e Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
16. ^ 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)
17. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press