jackdaw

Etymology

It is formed from English jack + daw.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} The OED takes the first element as the male forename Jack,^[2] and Klein as jack, the male of an animal,^[7] as Johnson's "a cock daw" assumes.^[8] According to the OED, if the sense of a talkative person came first, the name was at first probably given to a man likened to a daw for his talk; if the bird came first, the first element may partly imitate its call.^[2] It compares Middle French jaquette (“a magpie or similar bird”), in Cotgrave (1611).^[2] Daw is from Middle English dawe,^[9][7] known only from the 15th century and pointing to an unrecorded Old English *dawe,^[2][4] related to Old High German tāha,^[2][7][4] Middle High German tāhe^[2][7] and the diminutive that became German Dohle.^[2][7] Etymonline reconstructs Proto-Germanic *dakhwo and thinks the word perhaps imitative of the bird's cry.^[3] Medieval Latin tacula and Italian taccola are loans from the German word.^[2][7][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A garrulous person, one who talks incessantly or raucously: about 1520, in Rastell's Nature of the Four Elements.^[2] The bird is first recorded in 1543, in Bale.^[2][5] Etymonline dates it to the 1540s, and the plain daw was already in use for the bird from the 15th century.^[3][4]

Semantic evolution

The OED cannot tell whether the talker or the bird came first.^[2] Later uses draw on the bird's reputation for mimicry and for pilfering: Johnson (1755) describes it as taught to imitate the human voice,^[8] and the 1989 edition of the OED notes its loquacity and thievish propensities.^[3] A fable supplied the "pretentious impostor, plagiarist" of 1699, the jackdaw in peacock's feathers,^[2] while the indiscriminate collector or petty thief appears from 1887, in Haggard's Jess.^[2] In the United States the name was applied to grackles from 1729.^[2][3] In rhyming slang it stood for the jaw, from 1858.^[10]

Timeline

• c. 1520 – a talkative or raucous person.^[2]
• 1543 – the small crow Corvus monedula.^[2][5][11]
• 1699 – a conceited pretender or plagiarist, after the fable of the jackdaw in peacock's feathers.^[2]
• 1729 – in America, a grackle, in Catesby's Natural History of Carolina.^[2][11]
• 1858 – rhyming slang for the jaw.^[10]
• 1887 – an indiscriminate hoarder, or a petty thief.^[2][11]

Meanings

Noun

1. A small crow of Europe and Asia, Corvus monedula, black with a grey neck and underparts, that often nests in chimneys and old buildings: Jackdaws were building in the church tower.^{[5][9][12][2]}
2. (US) A grackle, especially the boat-tailed grackle.^[5][2][6]
3. A person who talks incessantly or in a raucous voice.^[2]
4. A person who collects or hoards things indiscriminately, or a petty thief.^[2]
5. (rhyming slang) The jaw.^[10]

Related words

• daw
• jack
• caddow

Usage notes

The stress on this word has varied: the OED's first edition (1900) noted that it was formerly on the second syllable, and still was in Scotland,^[2] and Chambers still gives that stress.^[13]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e f Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
9. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
10. ^ a b c Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
11. ^ a b c Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
12. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ The Chambers Dictionary (2014), 13th ed., Edinburgh: Chambers