jack

jack¹ man, device, lifting tool, card, bowl

Etymology

The word for a man or device is inherited from Middle English jakke,^[5][6] the name Jack used as a common noun.^[1][7][8][9] The revised OED takes the name, recorded in Britain from 1275 or earlier, as a pet form of John, from Old French Jakke, apparently with loss of the nasal from *Janke, formed from Middle Dutch Jan and -ke after Janke, and compares Yankee.^[1] Dictionary.com, Collins and the Shorter Oxford also start from John, through its diminutive Jankin.^{[5][10][2][11]} Barnhart, Klein and Partridge instead derive the name from Old French Jaques, from Late Latin Iacōbus, the name Jacob,^[6][3][12] and the American Heritage Dictionary calls this possible.^[8] Hoad and the Shorter Oxford note that the resemblance to the French name is a difficulty.^[13][2] The verb comes from the noun,^[1][6][13] and the ship's flag is probably the same word, used of things smaller than normal.^{[1][2][13][11]}

Earliest recorded meaning

A name for any man of the common people: about 1390, in a manuscript of Langland's Piers Plowman written before 1376, "Saue Iacke þe Iogelour";^[1] the 1989 edition of the OED dates it 1362.^[14] Barnhart has it as a surname in 1285 and for any common fellow about 1390, in Chaucer.^[6][15]

Semantic evolution

As Jack was the most ordinary of names, it came to stand for any ordinary man, as Tom, Dick and Harry do now.^[9] From 1548 a jack was a lad or fellow, often one of low standing,^[1][7] later also a sailor (1659).^[1] Devices that took the place of a person or saved labour were named after him: a spit-turner in 1391, the striking figure on a clock in 1498, a bootjack in 1674, and the lifting device in 1679.^[1][13] The telephone and electronic socket dates from 1885.^[1] Another branch uses the name for what is small or insignificant: the small bowl (Shakespeare's Cymbeline, before 1616), the flag at the bow (1633), and the game of jacks (1863).^[1][9] In cards it named the lowest court card of the trump suit in the game of all fours (1674),^[1] which Cresswell links to the sense "young man", since the card was also called the knave.^[9] The name also marks the male of animals, as in the male ass (1631), and various fish, especially the young pike (1587).^[1][13] The drinking vessel of waxed leather (1567) is placed here by the OED, whereas Hoad and Merriam-Webster list it under jack².^[1][13][7] Jack as money is recorded from 1890.^[1] The verb first meant to hunt with a jacklight, in North America (1833).^[1] "To raise with a jack" is from 1853, 1885 in Barnhart,^[1][6] "to raise prices" from 1904,^[6] and "to give up" from 1873 in Barnhart, 1902 in the OED.^[6][1] Connecting by a jack came in 1939, and logging into a computer system in 1970.^[1]

Timeline

• 1275 or earlier – the pet name in Britain.^[1]
• c. 1390 – a name for any common man.^[1][6]
• 1391 – a device for turning a spit.^[1][6]
• 1498 – a mechanical figure striking a clock bell.^[1]
• 1548 – a lad or fellow, as a common noun.^[1][7]
• 1587 – a pike, especially a young one.^[1]
• before 1616 – the small bowl at which players aim.^[1]
• 1631 – a male ass.^[1]
• 1633 – a small ship's flag.^[1]
• 1659 – a sailor.^[1]
• 1674 – a court card.^[1][13]
• 1679 – a device for lifting heavy objects.^[1]
• 1833 – verb, to hunt with a jacklight.^[1]
• 1853 – verb, to raise with a jack.^[1]
• 1885 – an electrical socket in a telephone switchboard.^[1]
• 1890 – money.^[1]
• 1939 – verb, to connect by a jack.^[1]

Meanings

Noun

1. A device for raising a heavy weight from below, especially for lifting a car: She put the jack under the axle.^[10][1]
2. A playing card of the lowest court rank, showing a young prince; the knave.^[10][1]
3. In bowls, the small white bowl at which players aim.^[10][1]
4. A socket into which an electrical plug fits.^[1]
5. A small flag flown on a ship as a signal or mark of identity.^[1][2]
6. (informal) A man or fellow; a sailor.^[10][1]
7. The male of certain animals, especially the ass.^[10][1]
8. A device that replaces human labour, such as one for turning a spit.^[10][1]
9. A young pike; also any of various marine fish.^[1][13]
10. jacks: a game of tossing and catching small objects; also one of these objects.^[1][10]
11. (slang, chiefly US) Money.^[1]

Verb

1. To raise with a jack, usually jack up: He jacked up the trailer.^[1][7][13]
2. (informal, jack up) To increase a price or amount.^[6][14]
3. (slang, chiefly British) To give up or abandon, often jack up.^[7][1]
4. To hunt or fish at night with a jacklight.^[7][1]
5. To connect by a jack, or to log in to a computer system.^[1]

Word family

• jackass
• jackdaw
• jackknife
• jack-in-the-box
• jack-o'-lantern
• jackpot
• jackrabbit
• lumberjack
• steeplejack
• bootjack
• cheap-jack
• jacklight
• jackstone
• Union Jack

jack² protective coat

Etymology

The protective coat is inherited from Middle English jakke,^[16] borrowed from Anglo-Norman jakke and Middle French jacque, recorded in 1364,^[1][17][7] from jacques (“peasant”), the male name Jacques, from Late Latin Iacōbus.^[1][3][11] Klein explains that the coat was worn especially by French peasants, who had the nickname Jacques.^[3] The OED rejects a derivation through Spanish jaco from an alleged word for a coat of mail in Arabic, which it calls a ghost word from a misreading,^[1] although the Shorter Oxford still allows it.^[2] Hoad and Collins call the French word of unknown or uncertain origin.^[13][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

A short close-fitting coat: 1378, in the Memorials of London, "paltockes [of black] satyn, [called] jackes".^[1] The 1989 edition of the OED dates it 1375,^[14] and the Anglo-Norman word is recorded from 1379–80.^[17]

Semantic evolution

The general sense of a short coat lasted until 1605.^[1] The more specific sense, a padded or quilted tunic of leather or canvas worn for defence, is recorded from about 1380, in Sir Ferumbras,^[1][16] and was later often plated with iron.^[2] From it came the phrases to lay on the jack of someone and to be upon someone's jack, to attack, in use from 1568 to 1673.^[1] Weekley notes that the obsolete word was revived by Scott.^[11] The French word spread widely, to Italian giaco, Spanish jaco, Dutch jak and German Jacke,^[1] and jacket is a later related English word.^[1]

Timeline

• 1378 – a short close-fitting coat (obsolete by 1605).^[1]
• c. 1380 – a padded or quilted defensive tunic.^[1][16]
• 1568 – to lay on the jack, to attack (obsolete by 1579).^[1]

Meanings

Noun

1. (archaic) A short, sleeveless, padded coat of leather or canvas, sometimes plated with iron, worn for defence in the Middle Ages.^[7][2][1]

jack³ tropical tree and its fruit

Etymology

The tree and its fruit are borrowed from Portuguese jaca,^[1][5][2][3] recorded from 1535,^[1] from a Dravidian language: the OED compares Malayalam ചക്ക (cakka) and Tamil சக்கை (cakkai).^[1] Several dictionaries name the Malayalam word as the source.^{[5][2][3][10]} Klein and Partridge carry it further to a word for a wheel or round object in Sanskrit, and Klein relates this to cycle.^[3][12]

Earliest recorded meaning

The fruit, and the tree that bears it: 1582.^[1] The 1989 edition of the OED had 1613.^[14]

Semantic evolution

The Indian name appears earlier in Latin contexts of the 14th century.^[1] The word came into other European languages through Portuguese as well, as in French jaque and Italian giaca.^[1] The compound jackfruit is recorded from 1694 in the 1989 edition of the OED.^[14]

Timeline

• 1582 – the fruit and the tree.^[1]
• 1694 – in compounds, such as jack-fruit and jack-tree.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. A tropical Asian tree, Artocarpus heterophyllus, related to the breadfruit.^[2][1]
2. The very large edible fruit of this tree; jackfruit.^[1][2]

Word family

• jackfruit