Jackson. The name of a river and several towns of the United States, after General Andrew Jackson, the seventh President.
Jack Straw’s Castle. A noted hostelry at Hampstead, said to have been built on the spot where Jack Straw, one of the leaders in Wat Tyler’s insurrection, made his habitation on the hillside.
Jack Tar. A sailor, because he wears tarpaulins in “dirty weather.” Jack is a generic name for a man or servant.
Jacobins. The French designation of the Black Friars or Dominicans, from the situation of their earliest convent in the Rue St Jacques, Paris, 1219.
Jacobites. The Catholic adherents of James II. and his lineal descendants after the accession to the English throne of William III. Jacobus was the Latinised form of the King’s name.
Jacobus. The Scottish sovereign, valued at 25s., which became current in England also at the union of the two crowns in the person of King James I.
Jacquard Loom. After its inventor, Marie J. Jacquard of Lyons, who died in 1834.
Jacquerie. The name given to an insurrection of French peasants in 1358. Jacques is the generic name for a member of the artisan class in France, owing to the jacque, or sleeveless white cotton jacket, worn by them. The leader of this insurrection called himself Jacques Bonhomme, being of the artisan class himself.
Jag. An Americanism for drunkenness. The word is employed in a variety of ways: “He’s got a jag on”--“He’s on a drinking bout”; “He’s on his jags”--“He knows how it is to have the jags”; “He has the jags just now,” etc. etc.
Jail Bird. So called because the earliest kind of prison in this country was an alfresco iron cage.