Jerkinhead Roof Origin

Disappointment reigned as the oed informed me that jerkinhead is of uncertain origin.

Jerkinhead roof origin.

The term jerkin is much older dating from the 16c. The origin of the design dates to medieval times but was revived in the late 18th and early 19th centuries when old world. Jerkinhead roofs date back to the medieval times but gained popularity in the late 18th and early 19th century. Jerkinhead roofs are sometimes found on american bungalows and cottages small american houses from the 1920s and 1930s and assorted victorian house styles.

The jerkinhead gable roof design was commonly used in the mid 1920s by gilbert stanley underwood a park lodge designer for the utah parks company. Perhaps sloped gables first appeared on the heads or roofs of churches but there seems to be no clear evidence of this. The end of a roof that is hipped sloped for only part of its height leaving a truncated gable. According to the oxford english dictionary jerkinhead originated in the mid 19c.

A square hip roof is shaped like a pyramid. A jerkinhead is a truncated gable at the end of a roof. A hip roof hip roof or hipped roof is a type of roof where all sides slope downwards to the walls usually with a fairly gentle slope although a tented roof by definition is a hipped roof with steeply pitched slopes rising to a peak. The oed draws a possible connection between jerkinhead and kirkinhead.

The effect is a roof line that folds or leans back into the ridge. Jerkinhead definition is a hipped part of a roof which is hipped only for a part of its height leaving a truncated gable. Perhaps for jerking as if the slope were jerkily interrupted an earlier and even more obscure reference is kirkin head dating from 1703 which may suggest that jerkinhead is a corruption of that earlier term. Thus a hipped roof house has no gables or other vertical sides to the roof.

Although the origin of the word doesn t seem to be known a jerkin is a close fitting jacket usually with cropped sleeves which may have inspired the use of the term for this clipped off gable. Though this word has uncertain origins the oed explains that it could have been a variation of kirkin head in which we find kirk an old scots variation of the word church. The jerkinhead roof goes by many different names including jerkinhead jerkin head half hipped clipped gable and english hipped roofs. But it is of an unknown origin.