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Comment by sdrothrock | Hacker News Reader

The evolution of "jerk" makes me also think of "nimrod" and how it referred to the biblical hunter and meant someone with great skills in hunting, until it was used to refer to Elmer Fudd, at which point the meaning changed to mean a complete idiot.

https://thehabit.co/nimrod-hectoring-maudlin-eponymns-and-pe...

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It's fascinating that this pattern happened the reverse direction, with a different biblical term: the word 'fool' as used in the KJV Bible translates a Jewish concept that doesn't really mean what we think of today "a person without intellectual wisdom", but at the time of writing meant more closely "a person without moral wisdom" - or perhaps without both but apparently primarily referring to the moral flaw.

I have also seen the argument that our contemporary distinction between moral and intellectual wisdom itself is something we as readers unconsciously impose on the text, with the distinction not prominently drawn in the ancient Jewish view(s).*

This means that "Fool" moved from a meaning close to "an objectionable or obnoxious person" toward "a person without intellectual wisdom" over centuries, while "jerk" apparently has gone the opposite direction within just a few recent decades.

* I'm far from an expert at this.

I thought "nimrod" as an epithet (meaning ~"dummy") came from Nimrod, the Biblical king who ordered the construction of the Tower of Babel (which caused offense to God and thereafter great confusion -- which would have earned him the reputation of being a person who makes bad choices, if your belief system is so aligned).

Assyrian in origin, Nimrud was a very talented hunter, but perhaps he got mixed up with a city along the way, and the Bible's thoughts on Assyrians, Persians, and Babylonians is always interesting to trace back to the truth.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nimrod_(disambiguation)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nimrud_(disambiguation)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nimrud

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borsippa

Either way, Bugs Bunny used it sarcastically to describe Elmer Fudd, and here we are.

I believe I have heard it used that way in something pre-20th century as well but I can't figure out where right now.

But making poor decisions and offending god is not particularly noteworthy for a figure in genesis. Possibly the most interesting thing about genesis as a piece of literature is that making horrible god-offending choices is quite routine and the figures are not understood as less important because of it, nor more important in spite of it, but simply important for unrelated reasons that cannot be changed by the quality of their judgement or morality of their actions.

Nimrod is a piece of music and an aircraft ... in my head, well before anything to do with a comic character.

That change has a singular impetus, though. The shift in a word like jerk seems to be more subtle and take longer.

For anyone that knew the reference, it was ironic. Needless to say, most of the viewers of that cartoon did not. There were more of the later than former, thus..

It's also still used as a name in Israel, I think.

I worked with a Nimrod in San Francisco. He was more of a doofus, but very affiable.

I remember somebody showing up late for Usenix because "some doofus did a newfs" that he had to take care of.

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