When I read the word "jerkwater" I immediately guessed the meaning.Algot Runeman wrote:jerkwater
Pronunciation: /ˈjərkˌwôtər, -ˌwätər/
adjective
[attributive] North American informal
of or associated with small, remote, and insignificant rural settlements:some jerkwater town
Origin:
mid 19th century: from jerk1 + water, from the need for early railroad engines to be supplied with water in remote areas, by dipping a bucket into a stream and “jerking” it out by rope
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Every two days, John visited the jerkwater town of Salsberry, once headed west and then back east. He never knew it, though. For him, it was just a trellis bridge and a good stream for engine water.
But I imagined a completely different etymology.
"backwater" is often used (six times in the Vorkosigan Saga by our resident author LMB) as a synonym for "backcountry", "an isolated and under-developed region"
Now from the sophisticated perspective of some urbanites, the inhabitants of a sufficiently isolated backwater town could only be jerks, justification enough to call such a place a jerkwater town