J
Jack, a lad, fellow, chap, a young knave. Taming Shrew, ii. 1. 290; Middleton, Women beware, i. 2 (Ward); Heywood, Wise Woman of Hogsdon, v. 1 (Sir Harry); a Knave in Cards, Cotton, Complete Gamester, ix; figure of a man striking the bell on the outside of a clock, Richard III, iv. 2. 117; also, Jack o’ the clock, Richard II, v. 5. 60; Jack i’ the clock-house, Beaumont and Fl., Coxcomb, i. 5. 3; jack, the piece of wood with a quill for plucking the strings of the ‘virginal’, Shaks., Sonnet 128; Jack o’ Bethleem, see [bedlam]; Jack in box, one who deceived tradesmen by substituting empty boxes for boxes full of money, Middleton, Spanish Gipsy, iv. 1 (Sancho’s song), see Dyce, iv. 164; Jack-a-Lent, a small stuffed puppet thrown at during Lent; a butt, Merry Wives, iii. 3. 27; v. 5. 134; Fletcher, Woman’s Prize, iv. 4 (Rowland).
jack, a coat of quilted or plated leather, a coat of defence. Drayton, Pol. xxii. 166; ‘His golden-plated Iacke’, Twyne, tr. of Virgil, Aeneid x, 314.
jack, a drinking-measure, pot; said to contain half a pint. Taming Shrew, iv. 1. 51; Tusser, Husbandry, § 85. 10.
jackman; see [jarkman].
jack merlin, a male merlin or hawk. Beaumont and Fl., Honest Man’s Fortune, v. 1. 13.
Jacob’s staff; ‘A pilgrim’s staff, so called from those who go on pilgrimage to the city of St. Iago, or St. James Compostella in Spain’, Blount, Glossographia; with reference to Gen. xxxii. 10, Spenser, F. Q. i. 6. 35; a cross-staff, an instrument for measuring heights and distances, Marlowe, 2 Tamburlaine, iii. 3 (Techelles); Beaumont and Fl., Elder Brother, ii. 1 (Brisac); Butler, Hudibras, ii. 3. 786; used by astrologers and astronomers, Marmyon’s Fine Companion (Nares).
jaculation, a hurling. Milton, P. L. vi. 665. L. jaculatio.
jade, to over-drive, to pursue to weariness; ‘It is a dull thing to tire, and, as we say, to Iade anything too farre’, Bacon, Essay 32; ‘The ne’er-yet beaten horse of Parthia We have jaded out o’ th’ field’, Ant. and Cl. iii. 1. 34. From ‘jade’, a contemptuous term for a horse; Scot. jaud; Norm. F. *jaude, Icel. jalda, a mare; cp. Scot. yaud, an old worn-out horse, see EDD. (s.v. Jade).
jambeux, leggings, armour for the legs. Dryden, Palamon and Arc., iii. 35; spelt giambeux, Spenser, F. Q. ii. 6. 29. ME. jambeux (Chaucer, C. T. B. 2065). See Dict. (s.v. Jamb).
Jane, a small silver coin of Genoa, introduced into England in Chaucer’s time. Phr. many a Jane (i.e. much money), Spenser, F. Q. iii. 7. 58 (borrowed from Chaucer, C. T. B. 1925). OF. Janne(s, Genoa.
jane, a twilled cotton cloth, a kind of fustian, ‘jean’; ‘Jane judgments’, coarse, common judgments, Two Noble Kinsmen, iii. 5. 8. Named from Genoa.
jant, to over-tire a horse. Tusser, Husbandry, § 87. 3; jaunt, Cotgrave (s.v. Jancer). See [jaunce].
jant, smart, showy; ‘To Smeton . . . Where were dainty ducks, and jant ones’, Brathwaite, Drunken Barnaby, 119.
janty, jaunty, genteel, elegant, stylish; janty, Parson’s Wedding, i. 3 (Sad); in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, xiv. 401 (but spelt ganty in ed. 1663); jantee, Shadwell, Timon (epilogue). Anglicized phonetic representation of F. gentil, see NED. (s.v. Jaunty).
jape, to jest, joke. Berners, Froissart, I, ccxxxiii. 324; ‘I dyd but jape with hym’, Palsgrave; a merry tale, a jest, Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. iii, ch. 29, § 2; Sir T. Wyatt, Sat. i. 31. ME. jape, vb. (Chaucer, Leg. G. W. 1699; sb. C. T. A. 4201). Cp. O. Prov. gap, ‘plaisanterie, raillerie’ (Levy).
jar, to grate; hence, to quarrel, dispute; ‘We will not jar’, Marlowe, Jew of Malta, ii. 2 (Barabas); jarre, Gascoigne, Works, i. 105; l. 16.
jar, a grating noise; the tick of a clock; also, a quarrel, dispute; ‘A jar of the clock’, Wint. Tale, i. 2. 43; ‘fallen at jars’, 2 Hen. VI, i. 1. 253.
jarkman, an educated beggar. (Cant.) Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, ii. 1.4; ‘A Ia[r]ckeman is he that can write and reade, and somtime speake latin; he vseth to make counterfaite licences which they call Gybes, and sets to Seales, in their language called Iarkes’, Awdeley, Vagabonds, p. 5. Spelt Jackman, B. Jonson, Gipsies Metamorphosed (first stage direction).
jasp, a jasper. Spenser, Visions of Bellay, ii. 11. ME. jasp (Wyclif, Isaiah liv. 12), OF. jaspe. L. iaspis. Gk. ἴασπις.
jaum, to ‘jam’, press, squeeze; to be hard upon, to jeer at. Heywood, Witches of Lancs., A. i (near the end); vol. iv, p. 186. In prov. use in Yorks. and Lincoln, meaning ‘to squeeze’; see EDD. (s.v. Jam).
jaunce, to stir a horse, to make him prance, used fig. Richard II, v. 5. 94; a weary journey, Rom. and Jul. ii. 5. 53; geances, troublesome journeys, B. Jonson, Tale of a Tub, ii. 1 (Hilts). ‘Jaunce’ is in use in Sussex for a weary or tiring journey, see EDD. (s.v. Jance). F. jancer un cheval, ‘to stirre a horse in the stable till he sweat with-all, or as our jaunt’ (Cotgr.). See NED.
jaunt; see [jant].
jaunts (?); ‘You lead me fair jaunts, sir’, Middleton, Mich. Term, iii. 5 (Shortyard). Perhaps the same word as jaunce, taken as a plural; from jaunts thus evolved would come our jaunt. If this explanation be correct, Middleton’s word would mean ‘troublesome journeys’.
javel, a low fellow; ‘He called the fellow ribbalde, villaine, javel’, Robynson, tr. More’s Utopia, 46; Spenser, Mother Hubberd, 309; Appius and Virginia, Hazlitt’s Dodsley, iv. 150; javill, Roper’s Life of Sir Thos. More (in Robynson’s Utopia, p. lv). ME. javel, ‘joppus, joppa’ (Prompt. EETS., see note, no. 1097).
jawme, a ‘jamb’, side post of a door-way. Spelt jame, Golding, Metam. xii. 281; fol. 146, bk. (1603); jawme, id. (1593). ‘Jawm’ (‘Jaum’) is still the prov. form in the north country, see EDD. (s.v. Jamb). F. jambe, ‘the leg, the jaumbe or side-post of a door’ (Cotgr.).
jawn, a chine, fissure, chasm. Marston, Antonio, Pt. II, ii. 1 (Pandulfo). See [chawne].
jerk, to scourge, whip, lash; ‘Fouetter, to scourge, yerke, or jerke’, Cotgrave; a sharp stroke with a whip, Randolph, Muses’ Looking-glass, i. 4 (Satire). Hence jerker, one who lashes severely; Beaumont and Fl., Wit without Money, iv. 3. 3. See [yerk].
jernie, to utter a profane oath; ‘Although he jernie and blaspheme’, Butler, On our Imitation of the French (near the end); Remains (ed. 1759, i. 84); see NED. F. jerni (jarni), for jarnidieu, i.e. je renie Dieu, I renounce God. See Cotgrave (s.v. Jarnigoy).
jert, to use a whip. Nash, Summer’s Last Will (Harvest), in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, viii. 52. See EDD.
jest, a deed, action; ‘A worthy jest’, Wounds of Civil War, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, vii. 186; ‘in this jest’, in this action, Downfall of E. of Huntingdon, i. 3 (Robin); in Hazlitt, viii. 114. See [gest(e].
jet, to fling about the body, to strut about, Twelfth Nt. ii. 5. 36; ‘I jette, Je me jamboye’, Palsgrave. ‘Jet’ in this sense is a Warwicksh. word, see EDD. (s.v. Jet, 4). F. jetter (jecter), to throw (Cotgr.).
jet upon, to encroach upon, Richard III, ii. 4. 51; Titus Andron. ii. 1. 64.
jetty, to move about briskly. Tusser, Husbandry, § 68. 1.
Jew’s ear, an edible cup-shaped fungus, growing on roots and trunks of trees, Hirneola or Exidia Auricula-Judæ. Heywood, Witches of Lancs, iii (Joan), in Wks. iv. 207; ‘Jew’s eares . . . an excrescence about the roots of Elder, and concerneth not the Nation of the Jews, but Judas Iscariot, upon a conceit, he hanged on this tree’, Sir T. Browne, Vulgar Errors, ii. 7. 8 (Pseud. Ep. ii. 6. 101, NED.). See Nares.
jib-crack, a ‘gimcrack’. Fletcher, Woman’s Prize, iv. 1. 7.
jiggumbob, a trifle, toy, knick-knack, thing of slight value. Jiggembobs, Middleton, Women beware Women, ii. 2 (Fabricio); jigambob, Fletcher, Pilgrim, iii. 1. 14; jiggumbobs, Butler, Hud. iii. 1. 108.
jigmaker, a ballad-writer. Hamlet, iii. 2. 131. Dekker, Honest Wh., Pt. I, i. 1 (end).
jimmal-ring, a double ring (sometimes a treble ring), the rings being linked by a hinge. The jimmall-ring, or True-love-knot, Herrick. See [gimmal].
job, to stab slightly, to peck. Tusser, Husbandry, § 37. 12. In prov. use in the British Isles (EDD.). ME. jobbyn: ‘byllen or iobbyn as bryddys, iobbyn with the byl’ (Prompt.).
jobbernowl, a jocular term for the head, usually connoting stupidity. Butler, Hud. iii. 2. 815; Marston, Scourge of Villanie, ii. 6. 200; a stupid person, a blockhead, ‘Teste de bœuf, a joult-head, jobbernoll, cod’s-head, logger-head, one whose wit is as little as his head is great’, Cotgrave. In prov. use in both senses in the north country and E. Anglia (EDD.).
job-nut, the name of a childish game, in which hazel-nuts are perforated and strung through, in order to be knocked against each other. Lady Alimony, ii. 5 (Fricase). See NED. (s.v. Job, sb. (3)).
John Dory. The name of a popular song, ab. 1609; ‘I’ll have John Dorrie! For to that warlike tune I will be open’d’, Fletcher, The Chances, iii. 2 (Antonio). The legend is, that he was a commander of a French privateer, who undertook to take English prisoners to Paris, but was himself captured in the attempt; ‘Would I had gone to Paris with John Dory’ (ironical), Beaumont and Fl., Knt. of the B. Pestle, ii. 2 (Humphrey). See Nares.
jointer, joint-possessor. Greene, Friar Bacon, iii. 3 (1366); scene 10. 8 (W.); p. 170, col. 1.
jollyhead, jollity, mirth. Spenser, F. Q. vi. 11. 32.
jouissance, pleasure, merriment, mirth. Spenser, Shep. Kal., May, 25; Nov., 2. F. jouissance, an enjoying (Cotgr.).
journall, daily. Spenser, F. Q. i. 11. 31; Cymb. iv. 2. 10. F. journal, ‘journal, daily’ (Cotgr.). L. diurnalis (Ducange).
jovy, ‘jovial’, merry. Beaumont and Fl., Wildgoose Chase, iii 1 (Mirabel); B. Jonson, Alchem. v. 3 (Kastril).
jowl, joll, to strike, knock, esp. the head. As You Like It, i. 3. 59; Hamlet, v. 1. 84; ‘I jolle one aboute the eares’, Palsgrave. Beaumont and Fl., Scornful Lady, ii. 1. In prov. use in many parts of England from Lakeland to E. Anglia (EDD.). Deriv. of ME. ‘jolle or heed, caput’ (Prompt. EETS., see note, no. 1112).
judge, the name of the rook or castle in the game of chess. Only in Fitzherbert, Husbandry, Prol. 20. Fitzherbert’s rendering of justitiarius, the name applied to the rook in a Latin treatise on chess (c. 1400 A.D.). See NED.
judgement, a competent critic, a judge. Tr. and Cr. i. 2. 208; Dryden, Prol. to Secret Love, 45; Epil. to Evening Love, 3.
Jug, a familiar substitution for the female name of Joan; ‘Clown [to Joan], Bring him away, Jug! Enter Joan, with a fish’, Rowley, A Woman never vext, i. 1; in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, xii. 115. In Espinasse’s Lancashire Worthies Joan, the daughter of the celebrated Dr. Byrom, is familiarly called ‘Jugg’. See Bardsley’s English Surnames, p. 49 (note). This familiar name was applied to a homely woman, a maid-servant, the sweetheart of a peasant, King Lear, i. 4. 247; ‘A soldier and his jug’, A Knack to know a Knave (Hazlitt’s Dodsley, vi. 511); Preston, K. Cambises (Davies, Gl.).
jugal, conjugal, matrimonial; ‘The jugal knot’, Middleton, A Fair Quarrel, ii. 2 (Jane). Cp. L. vinclum jugale (Virgil).
julio, an Italian coin worth about sixpence. Webster, White Devil (Monticelso), ed. Dyce, p. 23; Shirley, Sisters, iii. 1 (Frapolo). Ital. giulio, named after Pope Julius II (1503-13); a coin by Julius the Pope worth sixpence sterling (Florio).
jument, a beast; properly a beast of burden. Cartwright, The Ordinary, ii. 1 (Slicer). OF. jument, a beast of burden; a mare (Cotgr.). L. jumentum, a yoke-beast.
jump, a kind of short coat for men; ‘Your velvet jumps’, Wycherley, Gent. Dancing-master, Epilogue, 33. In prov. use in various parts of England meaning a loose jacket, a child’s frock, also, a kind of stays, open in front (EDD.).
jump, to hazard, risk, Macbeth, i. 7. 7; Cymbeline, v. 4. 187; hence jump, hazard, venture, Ant. and Cl. iii. 8. 6.
jump with, to agree, tally, coincide with, Merch. Ven. ii. 9. 32; Taming Shrew, i. 1. 194; 1 Hen. IV, i. 2. 78; hence, jump, exactly, precisely, Hamlet, i. 1. 65; Othello, ii. 3. 392. In prov. use both as vb. and adv. (EDD.).
juppon, a close-fitting doublet worn under a hauberk. Dryden, Palamon, iii. 28. F. jupon, a short cassock (Cotgr.).
justle, to ‘jostle’. Udall, Roister Doister, iii. 3. 129.
jut, jutt, to jolt, bump, knock, push. Earle, Microcosmographie, no. 39, Plausible Man; jutte, a bump, push, Udall, Roister Doister, iii. 3. 8. In use in Yorks, Notts, and Linc. (EDD.).
jutty, to project beyond, to overhang. Hen. V, iii. 1. 13; ‘Let their eie-browes juttie over’, Kyd, Spanish Tragedy, iii. 12 a (Appendix, D. 138); ed. Schick, p. 121; the projecting part of a wall or building, Macbeth, i. 6. 6. Compare the Glouc. word ‘jetty’, to protrude (EDD.).