jack

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a device for raising heavy objects; also, to raise or boost

   He used a jack to lift the car and change the flat tire.

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Jack began as a medieval pet form of John and became a general term for an ordinary man. It later meant a young man and then a labourer, giving rise to the card name jack, compounds such as lumberjack and steeplejack, and names for various mechanical devices. Jack can also denote something smaller than usual, as in the target bowl called a jack and the small national flag flown aboard a ship called a Union Jack.

From the personal name 'Jack', a familiar form of 'John', long used generically for a common man, a labourer, or a mechanical device that does the work of a man; the lifting device is so named from this sense.

Topics

External links

• Google Images
• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary