ARCHAISMS AND PROVINCIALISMS.
Archaic and Provincial Words,
OBSOLETE PHRASES, PROVERBS, AND ANCIENT CUSTOMS,
FROM THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY.
JAMES ORCHARD HALLIWELL, ESQ., F.R.S.,
Honorary Member of the Royal Irish Academy; Corresponding Member of the Royal Society of Northern
Antiquaries, of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, of the Archæological Society of Stockholm, and the
Reale Academia di Firenze; Honorary Member of the Royal Society of Literature, of the Newcastle
Antiquarian Society, of the Royal Cambrian Institution, of the Ashmolean Society at Oxford, and of the
Society for the Study of Gothic Architecture; Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries; Corresponding
Member of the Comité des Arts et Monuments, &c. &c.
JOHN RUSSELL SMITH, 36, SOHO SQUARE.
ARCHAISMS AND PROVINCIALISMS.
A tenon for a mortise. West.
JAJA tenon for a mortiseenestar. dial.
JABELL. A term of contempt, more usually
applied to a woman than to a man. JACE. A kind of fringe. Devon. JACK. (1) A figure outside old public clocks made to strike the bell. It was also called Jack of the Clock, or Clock-house. Till a very recent period, the clock of St. Dunstan's church was furnished with two of these jacks. Dekker gives the phrase to a company of sharpers. See his Lanthorne and CandleLight, ed. 1620, sig. G. "Strike, like Jack o' th' clock-house, never but in season,' Strode's Floating Island, sig. B. ii. Jacks, the chimes, Hallamsh. Gloss. p. 53. (2) A coat of mail; a defensive upper garment quilted with stout leather. The term was more latterly applied to a kind of buff jerkin worn by soldiers; and a sort of jacket, worn by women, was also so termed. See Reliq. Antiq. i. 41; Collier's Old Ballads, p. 7. To be upon their jacks, i. e. to have the advantage over an enemy.
(4) Half, or a quarter of a pint. North. Per-
haps from Black-Jack, q. v. It also has the
same meaning as black-jack, as in the Trou-
bles of Queene Elizabeth, 1639, sig. C. ii.
(5) To beat. Craven.
(6) The knave of cards. North.
(7) The male of an animal. West.
(8) A farthing. An old cant term.
(9) A kind of water-engine, turned by hand,
used in mines. Staff.
ledge of all crafts. Jack by the hedge, the
herb sauce-alone. See Gerard, p. 650. Jack
of long legs, the summer fly generally called
daddy-long-legs. Every Jack-rag of them,
every person in the party. Jack in office, an
insolent fellow in authority. Jack nasty face.
a common sailor. Jack of Dover, some arti-
cle mentioned in the Canterbury Tales as
having been sold by the cook, but its precise
nature has not been ascertained. Jack-in-the-
green, a man inside a small house made of
flowers and evergreens, who carries it in the
procession of the sweeps on May-day morning.
JACK-ADAMS. A fool. Var. dial.
JACK-A-DANDY. A pert smart little imperti-
nent fellow. North.
JACK-A-LEGS. A large clasp knife. Also, a
tall long-legged man. North.
JACK-A-LENTS. Stuffed puppets which used
to be thrown at during Lent. See Cleaveland's
Poems, 1660, p. 64. It is a term of reproach
in various instances, as in the Bride, by
Nabbes, 4to. Lond. 1640, sig. G. ii. In the
West of England the name is still retained for
a scarecrow, sometimes called jaccomite.
JACK-AN-APES.
An ape.
See Fletcher's
Poems, p. 190. Now used for a coxcomb.
JACK-A-NODS. A simple fellow. North.
JACK-BAKER. A kind of owl. South.
JACK-BARREL. A minnow. Warw.
JACK-BOOTS. Large boots coming above the
knees, worn by fishermen. Var, dial.
JACK-DRUM. See Drum (3), and Topsell's
Historie of Serpents, 1608, p. 262.
JACKED. Spavined. A jacked horse.
JACKET. doublet. Sometimes, the upper
tunic; any kind of outer coat.
Hence, a young coxcomb; a sly
crafty fellow; a man of any description.
(11) Jack-at-a-pinch, a sudden unexpected call JACKEY. English gin. Var. dial.
to do anything. Also, a poor parson. Jack-JACK-HERN. A heron. I. Wight.
at-warts, a little conceited fellow. Jack of
the wad, an ignis fatuus. Jack in the basket,
a sort of wooden cap or basket on the top of
a pole to mark a sand-bank, &c. Jack in the
box, an irreverent name for the Sacrament.
Jack with the lanthorn, an ignis fațuus. Jack
of all trades, one who has a smattering know-
JACK-IN-BOX. A sharper who cheated trades-
men by substituting empty boxes for similar
looking ones full of money. Dekker.
JACK-LAG-KNIFE. A clasped knife. Glouc.
JACK-MAN. (1) A cream-cheese. West.
(2) A person who made counterfeit licenses, &c.
Fraternitye of Vacabondes, p. 4.
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