Antedating of OED JUMP, n2

[Robin Hamilton]

The current OED entry for JUMP, n2, "A kind of short coat worn by men in the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries," has a citation from 1654.

The term occurs earlier, in 1638, on page 133 of William Melvin's _The Sonne
of the Rogue_, a translation of a French text (1621) [2] which was in turn
translated from a Spanish original (1619) [1].

The relevant passage reads as follows:

"Those whom they call Cigarets, have for their particular office to haunt
Churches feasts and publique assemblies, at which they cut off the halfe of
a cloake, cassock sleeves, halfe a gowne, the quarter of a jumpe and finally
whatsoever they finde, for of all these they make money."

Here, “a quarter of a jumpe” translates the French, “le quart d’vne iupe,”
which in turn translates the Spanish, “un cuarto de faldellín,” perhaps ‘a
quarter of a skirt.'

        --   Robin Hamilton

[1] Carlos García, _ La desordenada codicia de los bienes ajenos. Antigüedad
y nobleza de los ladrones _ (Paris,1619)

[2] Vital d' Audiguier, _L'antiquité des larrons_ (Paris, 1621)

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org