There are times when we feel especially awake and enthusiastic, times when we’re not only capable of doing more than what’s merely necessary, but feel outright eager to go beyond the minimum requirements, and can’t stop ourselves from chirping and strutting a bit as we do so. That’s what it’s like when we’re perky.
The word perky matches its definition. It doesn’t have just one origin, but two. First, there’s its connection to coffee, which can be brewed through a percolator. Percolation is the process of moving water through a substance, often with the purpose of absorbing some part of its substance. People percolate ground up coffee beans to get the rich, dark, bitter brew, moving flavor and caffeine together out of the beans to create a drink that makes us feel perky.
Others note the similarity of feeling perky to the actions of a bird on a perch, preening its feathers in preparation for a good morning sing and flutter. In the north of France, people used the verb perquer to refer to the act of perching, and not much later, people began to refer to perking up in the sense of recovering their energy after a lull.
Imagine an eager songbird that’s had a cup of coffee in the morning time, and you’ve got the epitome of perky.
