Etymologically
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jumper

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 24 October 2026 at 18:41. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˈd͡ʒʌmpə/[1]
  • US: /ˈd͡ʒʌmpɚ/[1]

jumper1 one who jumps

Etymology

The agent noun is formed from English jump + -er, from the verb jump.[2][3][4][5][6] Dictionary.com dates it to 1605–15.[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

A person or animal that jumps or leaps: 1611, in Cotgrave's French–English dictionary.[2][5] Etymonline dates it to the 1610s.[3]

Semantic evolution

From the late 18th century the word was used for tools and devices that work with a jumping motion, first a heavy quarrying drill for blasting holes in rock (1769),[2][7] and in 1825 the noun gave a verb jumper, to bore a hole with such a drill.[2][4] In 1771 Gilbert White used it of a jumping insect such as a flea,[2] and in the dialects of Scotland, Ireland and much of England a jumper was a maggot found in cheese, bacon or cooked meat.[8] From 1774 Jumpers was the name of a body of Welsh Methodists who jumped and danced in their worship;[2][9] Merriam-Webster extends it to members of other revivalist sects.[5] Underworld slang of the 1780s used it for a thief who got into houses through the windows.[10] The 19th and 20th centuries added many specialized senses: one who jumps another's mining claim (1855),[2][5] a baby-jumper, a frame on an elastic cord in which a small child can bounce (1848),[3] a ticket inspector in British slang (1900),[2][4] a fraudulent repeat voter (1903) and one who quits a job (before 1904) in the United States,[2][5] an Australian jumper ant (1907),[2] a player who overbids in contract bridge (1929),[2] and a jump shot in basketball (1934 in Etymonline, 1937 in the OED).[3][2] In electricity a jumper is a short length of wire used to bridge a gap in a circuit, and the verb jumper, to connect by such a wire, is recorded from 1929.[7][2]

Timeline

  • 1611 – a person or animal that jumps.[2][5]
  • 1769 – a heavy drill used in quarrying.[2]
  • 1771 – a jumping insect or larva.[2]
  • 1774 – Jumpers, a sect of Welsh Methodists.[2]
  • c. 1786 – a thief who enters houses through the windows.[10]
  • 1825 – verb, to bore a hole with a jumper.[2]
  • 1848 – baby-jumper.[3]
  • 1855 – one who jumps a mining claim.[2]
  • 1900 – a ticket inspector (British slang).[2]
  • 1903 – a fraudulent repeat voter (US slang).[2]
  • 1929 – verb, to connect by a jumper wire.[2]
  • 1934 – a jump shot in basketball.[3]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. A person or animal that jumps, especially an athlete in a jumping event, as a high jumper.
  2. (electricity) A short piece of wire used to make a connection, often a temporary one, between two points of a circuit or around a break in it.
  3. (quarrying) A heavy drill worked by repeated blows, used to bore holes in rock.
  4. (basketball) A jump shot.
  5. (historical) A member of a Welsh Methodist group who jumped and danced as part of worship.

Verb

  1. To bore a hole with a jumper drill; in electricity, to connect with a jumper.

Word family

  • buckjumper
  • counterjumper
  • smokejumper
  • puddle-jumper
  • high jumper
  • long jumper
  • jumper cable
  • jolly jumper

jumper2 garment

Etymology

The garment is probably formed from English jump2 + -er,[2][4][5][6] from the obsolete noun jump, a short coat worn by men (1653), later also a woman's under-bodice (1666).[11][3][2] Hoad and Barnhart call the word of uncertain origin.[12][11] The OED takes jump as perhaps an alteration of French juppe, the source of the English noun jupe, reshaped by popular etymology after the verb jump;[2] the Shorter Oxford calls it an alteration of jupe,[4] and Collins a variant of it.[13] The Oxford Dictionary of English traces jump to jupe in its Scots sense of a man's loose jacket.[14][15] Etymonline suggests either the French word or some notion in the verb jump,[3] and Barnhart finds a borrowing from French difficult in both sound and sense, since jupe itself is recorded in English as a loose jacket (1837), a woman's bodice (1859) and a woman's shirt (1886).[11] The French word is jupe, in Old French also juppe and jube, a tunic worn under armour or a woman's skirt,[2][3][16] related to Old Occitan jupa, Spanish aljuba and Italian giubba,[2][11] from Arabic جُبَّة (jubba, “a long outer garment”).[2][17][3][13] The American Heritage Dictionary traces the Arabic word to a verb meaning "to cut".[17]

Earliest recorded meaning

A loose outer jacket or shirt reaching to the hips, of canvas, serge or coarse linen, worn by sailors and carters: 1853, in Kane's account of the Grinnell Expedition.[2][3][11]

Semantic evolution

The coarse working jacket was followed by a kind of strait-jacket (1894),[2] and in 1908 by a knitted pullover or a loose blouse worn over a skirt, the usual British sense today.[2][4][13] In regional British use the word meant a fisherman's jersey or a short loose coat, in Shetland also in the form jimper, and it was used in Australia too.[8] In American English the word passed to a sleeveless dress worn over a blouse or sweater: Barnhart records this from 1939,[11] while Etymonline and the OED date it to 1967, as a shortening of jumper dress (1907 in Etymonline).[3][2] Merriam-Webster also lists a sailor's blouse with a broad square collar and a child's one-piece play or sleeping suit.[5]

Timeline

  • 1653 – jump, a man's short coat.[2][11]
  • 1666 – jump, a woman's under-bodice.[2][11]
  • 1853 – jumper, a loose outer jacket worn by sailors and workmen.[2][3][11]
  • 1894 – a kind of strait-jacket.[2]
  • 1907 – jumper dress.[3]
  • 1908 – a knitted pullover; a loose blouse worn over a skirt.[2]
  • 1939 – a sleeveless dress worn over a blouse (American English).[11]
  • 1967 – jumper for a jumper dress, in the OED.[2][3]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. (chiefly British) A knitted or crocheted garment for the upper body; a sweater or pullover: He put on a thick wool jumper before the walk.
  2. (US, Canada) A sleeveless dress worn over a blouse or sweater; a pinafore dress.
  3. A loose jacket or smock worn over other clothes by workmen; also a sailor's blouse with a broad square collar.
  4. (US, usually plural) A child's one-piece garment for play or sleeping.

Usage notes

A separate obsolete verb jumper, to jumble together or put together discordantly, was used from Chaucer (c. 1374) to 1532; its origin is obscure.[2] The British jumper (a sweater) and the American jumper (a pinafore dress) are a common source of misunderstanding between the two varieties.[13][5]

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 z 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b c d e f Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  6. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  7. ^ a b c Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  8. ^ a b Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
  9. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  10. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
  11. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  12. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  13. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  14. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  15. ^ Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  16. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
  17. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt