"French peasantry," 1520s, from Middle French jacquerie "peasants or villeins collectively" (15c.), from Jacques, the proper name, which is used as Jack is used in English, in the sense of "any common fellow." So it also means "the rising of the northern French peasants against the nobles in 1357-8," from a French usage. Etymologically, Jacques is from Late Latin Iacobus (see Jacob).