jitter

Etymology 1

Possibly alteration of chitter (“tremble, shiver”), from Middle English chittern (“to twitter, chatter”). Ultimately onomatopoeic; compare didder and teeter as well as German zittern.

noun

1. A nervous action; a tic.
2. (chiefly in the plural, often with "the") A state of nervousness.
   That creepy movie gave me the jitters.
   But Bolton deserve real credit, seeking to take advantage of their jitters at every opportunity in typically determined fashion. December 29, 2010, Chris Whyatt, “Chelsea 1 - 0 Bolton”, in BBC
   It is a sunny morning in Amman and the three uniformed judges in Jordan’s state security court are briskly working their way through a pile of slim grey folders on the bench before them. Each details the charges against 25 or so defendants accused of supporting the fighters of the Islamic State (Isis), now rampaging across Syria and Iraq under their sinister black banners and sending nervous jitters across the Arab world. 27 November 2014, Ian Black, “Courts kept busy as Jordan works to crush support for Isis”, in The Guardian
   Interviewer: How do you feel coming back here? What is constantly evoked in you when you see your center again back in Little Rock? Clinton: Well first of all if I don't come back about once a month I start to get the jitters. May 5, 2022, Bill Clinton, 0:00 from the start, in Bill Clinton talks Arkansas politics & Ukraine Full interview, THV11, archived from the original on 2022-05-05
3. (telecommunications) An abrupt and unwanted variation of one or more signal characteristics.
   Now you have mirror-clear TV without picture flopover, jitter, tear! 1956, LIFE, volume 41, number 11, page 41
4. (data visualization) A random positioning of data points to avoid visual overlap.

verb

1. (intransitive) To be nervous.
2. (data visualization) To position data points randomly to avoid visual overlap.

Etymology 2

jit + -er

noun

1. (computing) A program or routine that performs jitting; a just-in-time compiler.