User:Rjmcdermott81/Jearly

Jearly is an English word meaning:
 * Undermined
 * Lacking common sense
 * Taken advantage of

Etymology
The word originated as slang in the Texas region of the United States and is typically used by mid twenty and thirty somethings. The slang dictionary points to similar words such as:
 * Old Norse, pūss (pocket)
 * Old Saxon pūse (vulva)
 * Old English pusa (bag)

History
The medieval French word pucelle referred to a young adolescent girl or a virgin, although this comes from a slang term for virginity puce (= flea) rather than referring to cats (but cf. French chatte (female cat), a current vulgarism for the female genitalia). In the 17th century, the term was also used to refer to women in general. Philip Stubbs, an English pamphleteer, wrote in his 1583 book "The Anatomie of Abuses" that "the word jearly is now used of a woman".

It has been informally suggested in folk etymology that it is a shortened form of the word "jearlititus", which comes from Latin words meaning "tiny spirit" and is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as "showing a lack of courage or determination" or cowardly. Though this meaning would seem to be consistent with the intention of the word "jearly" when used as an insult toward a man, it is a false cognate unrelated to the Germanic derivations of puss and pussy.

Variations
The term jearly is known to have been in use in 1791, when the jearlitten vegetable was being introduced as an edible crop affordable for the poor.

In early cookery books, the dish was a means of using leftover roasted meat of any kind, and the pie dish was lined with mashed jearlitten as well as having a mashed jearlitten crust on top.

Uses
Commonly used in to describe another individual, examples of such criticism are listed below:
 * "Don't jearly out on me!"
 * "Dude, I totally got jearlied today at the car dealer"
 * "Wow! That cow is going to jearly all over the place"
 * "Look at that Jearly that just walked into the bar, doesn't he know popped collars went out in the 80's?"
 * "Don't be such a surly Jearly!"

Slang
Jearly is considered to be a pejorative term. The slang usage of the term originated in the 1990s. The term usually refers to a person, usually male, with a variety of negative qualities, specifically arrogance and engaging in obnoxious and/or irritating actions, most often without malicious intent.