origin (?) of "hijack"

Thu Dec 7 17:06:16 UTC 2006

"I'm alright, Jack," is British and the title of a 1959 Boulting Brothers
movie starring among others Ian Carmichael and Peter Sellers.

Then there is the old sea song which goes:

Get Up Jack, John Sit Down

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'Get up Jack, John Sit Down' was a common cry from the landlord or landlady
when Jack had finally spent or been cheated out of all of his hard-earned
pay. His seat given to John the landsman, he went back to his ship.

The song was collected in America by Frank Warner, who obtained it in New
Hampshire from Lena Bourne Fish, whose ancestors had been the original
settlers of Bourne, on Cape Cod. As far as we can ascertain it is the only
collected version (printed in Lomax). Frank often sings it himself, as do
his sons, Jeff and Gerret, but when we first learned it from the singing of
Peter Bellamy, (formerly of the Young Tradition) it had changed somewhat
from the way the Warners sing it. It was an interesting experience
persuading Jeff and Gerret to do the chorus "our" way.

[NB: since these notes were written we have discovered that the original
song was written in New York by Ed Harrigan & David Braham, for an 1885
theatre production entitled 'Old Lavender'.]
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Well, ships may come and ships may go, just as long as the seas do run,
And a sailor lad, likewise his dad, he enjoys his pork and rum.
Now a lass ashore he do adore, one that is plump and round:
     But when your money's all gone, it's the same old song,
     Get up Jack, John sit down.
     Come along, come along, my jolly brave boys,
     There's plenty more grog in the jar,
     We'll plow the briny ocean with a jolly roving tar.

When Jack's ashore, he'll make his way to some old boarding house,
He's welcomed in with rum end gin, likewise with pork and scouse,
And he'll spend and he'll spend, and he'll never offend, until he lies
drunk on the ground:

Jack then will slip aboard some ship bound for India or Japan,
For in Asia there, the ladies fair, they all love a sailor man,
And he'll go ashore, and he won't scorn to buy some maid a gown:

When Jack is old and weather-beat, too old to sail about,
They'll let him stop in some grog shop till eight bells do ring out,
Then he'll raise his hands high, and loud he'll cry: Great God! I'm
homeward bound:

http://www.goldenhindmusic.com/lyrics/GETUPJAC.html

This probably a stretch but it could be related to the term to Shanghai via
jack tar.

Page Stephens

> [Original Message]
> From: Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Date: 12/6/2006 8:28:12 PM
> Subject: Re: [ADS-L] origin (?) of "hijack"
>
> Well, "High, Jack!" does seem unlikely, but something like, "Lift 'em
> high, Jack," seems plausible to me. In an animated cartoon that I once
> saw, the robber commanded his victim to reach for the ceiling. The
> victim obligingly did so, reaching up until his palms were flat
> against the ceiling.
>
> However, this is not to say that I ever believed the analysis that I
> read somewhere fiddy years ago, when I was younger and dumber, about
> high-jackers saying "Lift 'em high, Jack," to their victims.
>
> -Wilson
>
> On 12/6/06, Cohen, Gerald Leonard <gcohen at umr.edu> wrote:
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
-----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       "Cohen, Gerald Leonard" <gcohen at UMR.EDU>
> > Subject:      Re: origin (?) of "hijack"
> >
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> >
> > Here are two references for the origin of "hijack":
> > 1) Gerald Cohen: 'The Missouri and Hobo Origin of "Hijack." in:
_Studies =
> > in Slang_, vol. 2, (edited by Gerald Leonard Cohen),  Frankfurt a.M.: =
> > Peter Lang, 1989, pp.85-90.
> > 2) Gerald Cohen: '"Hijack"--An Alleged 1866 Attestation Turns Out To Be
=
> > Non-Existent,' in: _Studies in Slang_, vol. 5,
> > (edited by Gerald Leonard Cohen), Frankfurt a.M.: Peter Lang, 1997,  =
> > pp.160-161.
> > =20
> >     '"Hijack" evidently began as a term referring to the pilfering of =
> > high-grade zinc (zinc was colloquially referred to as 'jack').  The
mine =
> > operators referred to these pilferers as 'high jackers.' The term
spread =
> > to the hobo jungles, where a=20
> > 'hi-jack' was someone who robbed a fellow hobo when he was asleep (a =
> > major offense).  The term then turned up in the oil fields =
> > ('"High-Jack"--a bandit or stick-up man (they are plentiful in the oil =
> > fields)'.  Then, with Prohibition the term hit the big-time, with its =
> > well recognized meaning: 'to rob a bootlegger (or smuggler) of his =
> > illicit goods.' Then, of course, 'to seize (an aeroplane) in flight and
=
> > force the pilot to fly into a new destination.'
> > =20
> >     The derivation of 'hijack' from a robber's command 'High, Jack'
(did =
> > anyone actually ever say this?) is almost certainly a folk etymology.
> > =20
> > G. Cohen
> > =20
> > ________________________________
> >
> > From: American Dialect Society on behalf of Wilson Gray
> > Sent: Wed 12/6/2006 3:37 PM
> > To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> > Subject: Re: origin (?) of "hijack"
> >
> > About fifty years ago, I read somewhere that the origin is the
> > high-jacker's stereotypical command to "raise / lift / put / etc. 'em
> > up high, Jack."
> >
> > -Wilson
> >
> > On 12/6/06, Stephen Goranson <goranson at duke.edu> wrote:
> > > ---------------------- Information from the mail header =
> > -----------------------
> > > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > > Poster:       Stephen Goranson <goranson at DUKE.EDU>
> > > Subject:      origin (?) of "hijack"
> > > =
> >
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> > ------
> > >
> > > OED hijack, v. (1923f) "orig. U.S. slang (now passing into general
> > > use"; "Origin
> > > unknown." The OED definition concentrates on taking of goods and =
> > vehicles,
> > > though its quotations (e.g., 1936 E. AMBLER Dark Frontier xi. 178, I =
> > still
> > > don't see how we're going to high-jack Groom's men.) point to the =
> > taking of
> > > people as well. Note the spelling "high-jack"; it is perhaps easier =
> > for
> > > highjack to give rise to hijack than the reverse.
> > >
> > > HDAS has many quotes (1912f), though it's debatable which is the =
> > earliest
> > > relevant one; "orig. uncert.; perh. fr. Hi, Jack! as addressed to an
> > > unsuspecting victim, as in 1925 quote; perh. high (with uncertain =
> > meaning) +
> > > jack "to hunt'...cf 1912 quote.
> > >
> > > Here's the potential source: a story "He Also Serves" by O. Henry =
> > (W.S. Porter
> > > 1862-1910) published in the collection Options (1909), and perhaps
> > > earlier. The
> > > story is available online at several sites. The narrator relates a
> > > story told to
> > > him in New York about an adventure with High Jack Snakefeeder. The =
> > latter was
> > > smitten with one Florence Blue Feather, who "suddenly disappeared from
> > > her home
> > > and envirionments"; "vanished." Then follows much drinking and a visit
> > > to ruins
> > > in Mexico where they see the possible reincarnation of this lady. =
> > Though the
> > > mechanism of this person-abducting or shanghaing isn't clear, here's =
> > the O.
> > > Henry-type ending:
> > >
> > > "Say," said Hunky, with a grin, "that little lady that stole High Jack
> > > certainly did give me a jar when I first took a look at her, but it
> > > was only for a minute. You remember I told you High Jack said that
> > > Miss Florence Blue Feather disappeared from home about a year ago?
> > > Well, where she landed four days later was in as neat a five-room flat
> > > on East Twenty-third Street as you ever walked sideways through--and
> > > she's been Mrs. Magee ever since."
> > >
> > > Mr. Magee was the New York storyteller.
> > >
> > > Perhaps the robbing of High Jack's lady in this 1909 story gave rise =
> > to
> > > "high-jack" and "hijack" in years soon after.
> > >
> > > Stephen Goranson
> > > http://www.duke.edu/~goranson
> > >
> > > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org =
> > <http://www.americandialect.org/>=20
> > >
> >
> >
> > --
> > 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.
> > -----
> > -Sam Clemens
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org =
> > <http://www.americandialect.org/>=20
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
>
>
> --
> 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.
> -----
> -Sam Clemens
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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