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JACK

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Originally appearing in Volume V15, Page 107 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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JACK , a word with a See also:

great variety of meanings and applications, all traceable to the See also:common use of the word as a by-name of a See also:man. The question has been much discussed whether " Jack " as a name is an See also:adaptation of Fr. Jacques, i.e. See also:James, from See also:Lat. Jacobus, Gr. 'IfKw(3or, or whether it is a See also:direct pet formation from See also:John, which is its earliest and universal use in See also:English. In the See also:History of the Monastery of St See also:Augustine at See also:Canterbury, 1414, Jack is given as a See also:form of John—Mos est Saxonum . . . verba et nomina transformare . . . . ut . . . See also:pro Johanne Jankin sine Jacke (see E. W.

B. See also:

Nicholson, The See also:Pedigree of Jack and other Allied Names, 1892). " Jack " was See also:early used as a See also:general See also:term for any man of the common See also:people, especially in See also:combination with the woman's name Jill or Gill, as in the nursery See also:rhyme. The New English See also:Dictionary quotes from the I See also:College; one at See also:Eton College; and six at the See also:Chelsea See also:Hospital. See also:Coventry Mysteries, 1450: " And I wole kepe the feet this tyde Many specimens are painted with See also:shields of arms, See also:initials and Thow ther come both Iakke and Gylle." See also:Familiar examples of other devices; they are very seldom mounted in See also:silver, though this generic application of the name are Jack or Jack See also:Tar for a See also:spurious specimens with silver medallions of See also:Cromwell and other sailor, which seems to date from the 17th See also:century, and such prominent personages exist. At the end of the 17th century a See also:compound uses as cheap-jack and See also:steeple-jack, or such expres- smaller jack of a different form, like an See also:ordinary drinking mug sions as " jack in See also:office," " jack of all trades," &c. It is a further with a tapering cylindrical See also:body, often mounted in silver, came See also:extension of this that gives the name to the See also:knave in a See also:pack of into See also:vogue in a limited degree. The See also:black jack is a distinct type of drinking See also:vessel from the See also:leather hotel and the See also:bombard. The jack-See also:boot, the heavy See also:riding boot with See also:long flap covering the See also:knee and See also:part of the thigh, and worn by troopers first during the 17th century, was so called probably from association with the leather jack or See also:jerkin. The jack-boot is still worn by. the See also:Household See also:Cavalry, and the name is applied to a high riding boot reaching to the knee as distinguished from the riding boot with tops, used in full See also:hunting-See also:kit or by grooms or coachmen. Jack, sometimes spelled jak, is the common name for the See also:fruit of the See also:tree Artiocarpus integrifolia, found in the See also:East Indies. The word is an adaptation of the Portuguese See also:jaca from the See also:Malay name chakka.

(See See also:

BREAD FRUIT.) The word " jackanapes," now used as an opprobrious term for a swaggering See also:person with impertinent ways and affected airs and See also:graces, has a disputed and curious history. According to the New English Dictionary it first appears in 1450 in reference to See also:William de la See also:Pole, See also:duke of See also:Suffolk (See also:Political Poems, " Rolls See also:Series," II. 224), " Jack Napys with his clogge hath tiede See also:Talbot oure gentille dogge." Suffolk's badge was a clog and See also:chain, such as was often used for an See also:ape kept in captivity, and he is alluded to (ibid. 222) as " Ape clogge." Jack Napes, Jack o' Napes, Jackanapes, was a common name for a tame ape from the 16th century, and it seems more likely that the word is a fanciful name for a See also:monkey than that it is due to the See also:nickname of Suffolk.

End of Article: JACK

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