Origin late Middle English: from Jack, nickname for the given name John . The term was used originally to denote an ordinary man (sense 6), also a youth (mid 16th cent.), hence the �knave� in cards and �male animal.� The word also denoted various devices saving human labor, as though one had a helper (sense 1, sense 3, sense 9, and sense 10, and in compounds such as
jackhammer and jackknife); the general sense �laborer� arose in the early 18th cent.
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Last Updated: Mar 07, 2014 11:18 PM
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