different between jerkwater vs podunk

English

Etymology

US mid-19th century. 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.

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /?d??k.w?.t?/

Noun

jerkwater (plural jerkwaters)

1. (US, historical) A train on a branch line.
   • 1975, Indiana Historical Society, Indiana Magazine of History, Vol. 71, no. 1 (Mar. 1975), page 355

     […] 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.

2. A jerkwater town.

Translations

Adjective

jerkwater (comparative more jerkwater, superlative most jerkwater)

1. (US, colloquial, derogatory) Of an inhabited place, small, insignificant, and backward.

Synonyms

• See: Thesaurus:remote place

Derived terms

• jerkwater town

Translations

Related terms

• jerk water
• jerk-water

English

Etymology

From Podunk, a mythical small town of no importance, that from Eastern Algonquian.

Adjective

podunk (comparative more podunk, superlative most podunk)

1. (US) Small, rural, and unimportant.

Synonyms

• backwater
• boonies
• drinkwater
• jerkwater

See also

• Podunk
• Thesaurus:remote place