"Jock"

[GSCole]

Having heard 'jock' used in reference to a brutish person, not
necessarily an athlete, I would like to know of a stronger connection to
[jock = athlete].  As an 'arm chair researcher', I looked to see what I
could find in the U. of Michigan MOA database.
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The brutish context may be hinted at in a reference to "Jock the
teamster" at:
http://moa.umdl.umich.edu/cgi/pageviewer?frames=1&coll=moa&view=75&root=mm000001%2F0041plai%2Fv0000%2Fi000&tif=00560056.tif&cite=http%3A%2F%2Fmoa.umdl.umich.edu%2Fcgi%2Fsgml%2Fmoa-idx%3Fnotisid%3DAFY0696

Supposedly the quote is from Emerson, and may have been familiar to
those at Harvard.  Per the quote, Jock was a wearer of iron shoes.

The quote appears on p. 52 of Plain words to young men, by Augustus
Woodbury, in 1858.
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At:
http://moa.umdl.umich.edu/cgi/pageviewer?frames=1&coll=moa&view=75&root=mm000036%2F0750teny%2Fv0000%2Fi000&tif=02350217.tif&cite=http%3A%2F%2Fmoa.umdl.umich.edu%2Fcgi%2Fsgml%2Fmoa-idx%3Fnotisid%3DAEC9697

"k'jock" is noted as a come-along call to a horse.  It appears as though
k'jock is representative of a sound, rather than a word, per se.  The
phrase is from Ten years among the mail bags..., by James Holbrook,
1855, on p. 217.
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In other references in the U. of Michigan MOA database, there are at
least two uses of jock as a name in Scotland.  One source notes that
Jack = Jock (Scottish).
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In The Primevel Man's Pastoral, the first line reads: My grandfather
Jock was an ape.  The poem is presented in Buffalo land...., by William
Edward Webb, 1872, p. 349.
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Jock the woodsman is noted in Ceadmon the Cow-Herd, by Aubrey de Vere,
in Feb 1878, published in Catholic world, 26, issue 155, on p. 579.  At:
http://moa.umdl.umich.edu/cgi/pageviewer?frames=1&coll=moa&view=75&root=mm000072%2F1429cath%2Fv0026%2Fi155&tif=05830579.tif&cite=http%3A%2F%2Fmoa.umdl.umich.edu%2Fcgi%2Fsgml%2Fmoa-idx%3Fnotisid%3DBAC8387-1429CATH-60
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One source uses jock in an apparent reference to jockey.
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Again, merely some skepticism as to the Jockey shorts ==> jock
derivation.  I've been wrong before, and might be with the suggestion
that brute = jock.  But, with the supposed relationship from the Harvard
1950s usage, we're talking about a time when professional athletes often
had off-season jobs that were less than genteel.  Perhaps there was a
difference in the use of jock for college athletes, vs. professional
athletes?

George S. Cole  gscole at ark.ship.edu
Shippensburg University