LL-L "Names" 2003.11.11 (02) [E]

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L O W L A N D S - L * 11.NOV.2003 (02) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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From: sam claire <samclaire at mybluelight.com>
Subject: LL-L names galore

                       GENERIC JACK
To ponder the very name JACK as bandied about the span of English brings
amusement and enlightenment.  This name was imported from the Hebrew JACOB,
thru the Greek, Latin, and French; one of the earlier forms, JANKIN, is
found in a 1327 writing of Chaucer.

JACK is the pet form of JOHN, used in many combinations and senses and has
its female counterpart in JILL (short for JULIANA).  A Jack in one of its
earlier definitions was a "saucy fellow," a sailor.  Shakespeare in the
TAMING OF THE SHREW called boys and girls JACKS and JILLS.  Jack as a common
name alludes to the male of many species of animals and represents the
common man; a stranger on the street might be heard attracting the attention
of another with the expression "Hey Jack."

Many of the countless usages of the name in expressions are forgotten but
they lie in limbo, waiting and willing for transmigration.  Here are a few
oldies:

Every man Jack - every single one (hence an ill-mannered or low-mannered,
low-bred man; the common man

Jack the lad - quite the fellow

Jack among the maids - a gallant, a lady's man

Jack-a-dandy - a conceited, affected fellow,  a fop (also Jack-a-dandyism)

Jackanapes - man who displays tricks like an ape (term of contempt)

Jack in office - petty, self-important office holder

Jack in the low cellar - unborn babe

Jack Ketch - the hangman

Jack-a-lantern - originally a night watchman

Jack-a-lent - first a figure set up to be thrown at; a butt.  Also a puppet,
hence a contemptible person

Jackman - counterfeiter

Jack o' the clock - figure of the man that strikes the bell on a clock

Jack pudding - a buffoon; particularly a clown serving as a montebank

Jack ass -  fool

Jack Frost - winter

>>From fairy tales:
Jack Spratt, Jack-be-nimble, Jack and the beanstalk

The relatively modern tag for the laboring man who fells trees, a logger, is
a lumberjack.  Those women who engage in this trade are "lumberjills."

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