Joll

Part of speech: verb, noun

Definitions

1. To strike or knock against something with a bump, a dialect usage found in some northern English and Scottish speech
2. Dialect verb meaning to jolt or bump into an object so that it is jarred or shaken
3. To give something a sharp knock or jolt, as regional speech sometimes describes an accidental collision

Etymology: "Joll" is a verb meaning to knock or bump something, especially a person's head, against something hard. Its roots go back to a jumble of Middle English words for parts of the face and throat. The Middle English verb "jollen" (also spelled "chollen") is thought to derive from "jolle," meaning "head," and that noun was itself a blend of two older words: "cholle," meaning "throat" or "gullet," and "jawle," a variant of "chavel," meaning "jaw." The result is a word built from the anatomy of the lower face and neck, which is fitting, since to joll is to strike the head hard against something. The exact path from those blended nouns to the verb is uncertain, and scholars treat the link as a plausible rather than settled one, so the connection to "head" is best read as a likely explanation rather than a proven fact.