yerk

Pronounced: yuhrk, verb/noun

Notes: I don’t think I’ve run across this word

---

Yesterday’s word

The word hackle means

• the hair or feathers on the back of an animal’s neck
• temper, dander

First usage

Our word came into English in the first half of the 1400s

Background / Comments

Like you, I was aware of the phrase “raise one’s hackles”, said of people. This usage is figurative; a person does not raise the hairs on the back of his head. When the word first came into English, it referred to a bird’s neck plumage. On male birds, the neck feathers can stand up when the bird is defensive, and our word also was used to refer to an instrument that was used to comb our long fibers of flax, hemp, or jute. The instrument definition is no longer in use; however, in the 1800s the word was used to refer to dogs (and people). With all of that, I have not heard of the word in the second sense; that is, to mean temper or dander. Our word comes from the late Middle English word hakel/hakele/hakle (animal’s skin; bird’s plumage).