jack = 'quit; give up'

[Jonathan Lighter]

When you "jack something up" you raise it "up."

When you throw something up, you do the same thing.

It's a kind of play on words.

Surely it's not a double-folkified "chuck up"?

(You can throw up your job, or you can jack up your job, or you can
chuck up your job, but you can't upchuck your job. At least not in
English.)

JL

On Tue, Oct 11, 2011 at 12:25 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: jack = 'quit; give up'
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Tue, Oct 11, 2011 at 12:14 PM, Jonathan Lighter
> <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Maybe from "throw up" one's job?
>
> What's the connection between _jack_ and _throw up_?
>
> --
> -Wilson
> -----
> All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint
> to come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
> -Mark Twain
>
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>



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