Etymology Dictionary

JOLT,  to shake violently, to jerk.  (E.)   Formerly also joult.   Cotgrave explains F. heurtade as 'a shock, knock, jur [jar], jolt, push;' and heurter as 'to knock, push, jur, joult, strike.'   Also found in the comp. jolt-head, a thick-headed fellow, Two Gent. iii. 1. 290; Tam. Shrew, iv. 1. 169.   'Teste de bœuf, a joult-head, jober-noll, loger-head, one whose wit is as little as his head is great;' Cot.   In North's Plutarch, p. 133 (R.), or p. 158, ed. 1631, we find some verses containing the word jolt-head, as well as the expression 'this heavy jolting pate,' said of Jupiter, when regarded as a stupid tyrant.   β. The frequent association of jolt with head or pate is the key to the history of the word.   Jolt-head = jolled-head, one whose head has been knocked against another's, or against the wall, a punishment for stupid or sulky scholars.   The shorter form joll was especially (perhaps only) used in this sense, for the plain reason that it was formed from the sb. joll or jowl, the cheek or side of the head.   γ. It will be found, accordingly, that the words occur in the following chronological order, viz. (1) joll, the cheek, of A.S. origin; (2) joll, to knock the head; and (3) jolt-head and jolt.   'Iol, or heed, iolle, Caput;' Prompt. Parv.   'Iolle of a fysshe, teste;' Palsgrave.   'Ther they jollede [beat on the head] Jewes thorowe;' M.S. Calig. A. ii. f. 117; cited in Halliwell.   'They may joll horns [knock heads] together;' As You Like It, i. 3. 39.   'How the knave jowls it [viz. a skull] to the ground;' Hamlet, v. 1. 84.   'Joll, the beak of a bird, or jaw-bone of an animal; hence, to peck; Norfolk;' Halliwell.   'Joll, to job with the beak, as rooks job for worms, or for corn recently sown;' Marshall's Rural Economy, East Norfolk (E. D. S. Gloss. B. 3).   δ. Even if the above equation of jolt to joll'd be not accepted, the facts remain (1) that jolt is an extension of joll, to knock the head, or peck with the head (as a bird), and (2) that joll, verb, is from joll or jowl, sb.   ε. It may be added that jolt seems to have acquired a frequentative sense, 'to knock often,' and was soon used generally of various kinds of jerky knocks.   'He whipped his horses, the coach jolted again;' Rambler, no. 34 (R.)   See further under Jowl.   Der. jolt, sb.