"tedious and ineffectual person," 1935, American English carnival slang, of uncertain origin. Perhaps from jerkwater "petty, inferior, insignificant" [Barnhart, OED]; alternatively from, or influenced by, verbal phrase jerk off "masturbate" [Rawson]. The lyric in "Big Rock Candy Mountain," sometimes offered as evidence of earlier use, apparently is "Where they hung the Turk [not jerk] that invented work."
A soda-jerk (1915; soda-jerker is from 1883) is so called for the pulling motion required to work the taps.
The SODA-FOUNTAIN CLERK
Consider now the meek and humble soda-fountain clerk,
Who draweth off the moistened air with nimble turn and jerk,
[etc., Bulletin of Pharmacy, August, 1902]
"office or official position of a secretary" in the administrative and executive sense, 1811, from French secrétariat, from Medieval Latin secretariatus "the office of a secretary," from secretarius "clerk, notary, confidential officer, confidant" (see secretary). Meaning "division of the Central Committee of the USSR" (with capital S-) is from 1926, from Russian sekretariat.
some printed Latin text (usually Psalms li.1) "set by the ordinary of a prison before a malefactor claiming benefit of clergy, in order to test his ability to read. If the ordinary or his deputy said legit ut clericus (he reads like a clerk or scholar), the malefactor was burned in the hand and set free, thus saving his neck" [Century Dictionary]. See neck (n.) + verse (n.).
also baboo, 1782, Anglo-Indian, "native clerk (originally in Bengal) who writes English," from Hindi babu, title of respect, perhaps originally "father."
In Bengal and elsewhere, among Anglo-Indians, it is often used with a slight savour of disparagement, as characterizing a superficially cultivated, but too often effeminate, Bengali. [Yule and Burnell, "Hobson-Jobson," 1886]
In reference to "the ornate and somewhat unidiomatic English of an Indian who has learnt the language principally from books" [OED] from 1878.
"professional penman, copyist, amanuensis, clerk," late 14c. (early 13c. as a surname), with superfluous -er + scrivein "scribe" (c. 1300, c. 1200 as a surname), from Anglo-French escrivin, Old French escrivain "a writer, notary, clerk" (Modern French écrivain), from Vulgar Latin *scribanem accusative of scriba "a scribe," from scribere "to write" (from PIE root *skribh- "to cut"). For the dropping of Latin soft medial -b- to aspirated -v- in French, compare debere/devoir, caballum/cheval, habere/avoir, etc.
Middle English also had scrivable "suitable for being written on" (c. 1400); an adverb scrivenish (late 14c.); scrivenrie "craft or occupation of writing" (mid-15c.). A back-formed verb scriven "to write," especially in the wordy and repetitive style of legal documents, is attested by 1680s.
late 15c. as a nickname for Alexander; it is a diminutive or familiar variant of the nickname Saunder, which is preserved in surnames, as in Clerk Saunders of the old Border ballad. As the typical name for a Scotsman (especially a Lowlander) from 1785; in that use also punning on the hair-color sense of sandy (adj.). Also Sawney.