jerky

Where does the word "jerky" come from? It comes from Quechua ch'arki, passing through Spanish before entering English (1800s).

Jerky’s story begins in Quechua: ch'arki meant “dried meat.” Meaning "dried, salted meat". By 1500s-1600s, the word had taken hold in Spanish as charqui. Quechua 'charqui', dried meat; the Inca stored it for armies. It reached English by 1800s as jerky. Adapted from Spanish through contact in the Americas. Today, jerky means meat that has been trimmed of fat, cut into strips, and dried.

1. Stage 1 · Quechua · pre-1500s ch'arki "dried meat", meaning "dried, salted meat".
2. Stage 2 · Spanish · 1500s-1600s charqui "dried, salted meat", Quechua 'charqui', dried meat; the Inca stored it for armies.
3. Stage 3 · English · 1800s jerky "dried, seasoned strips of meat", adapted from Spanish through contact in the Americas.