Jacks

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /d͡ʒæks/

Definitions

1. Multiple tools used for lifting heavy objects, typically vehicles ; several playing cards each showing a face with a young man ; more than one male donkey or similar male animal
2. Various mechanical devices designed to raise cars or other heavy loads ; several face cards depicting a young male figure in a deck ; a quantity of male donkeys or related animals
3. A collection of lifting tools used to elevate heavy items ; multiple face cards featuring a male figure among suits ; several male animals such as donkeys known by this name

Etymology: "Jacks" is the plural of "jack", and the singular carries a surprising amount of history. The most common sense, the lifting device, is a transferred use of the personal name Jack, the everyday name that stood in for an ordinary man. Its roots run through Middle French "jaque", a word for a peasant or common fellow, taken from the proper name Jacques, the French form of James. A "jacquerie" was a peasant uprising, which shows how the name once carried a social sense of the ordinary, lowly man. The card sense follows the same pattern. The jack is the playing card ranked just below the queen, which is why cricket borrowed the term for the eleventh batsman, the one who comes after the ten. The donkey sense, a male ass, is the same name used as a nickname for a male animal.

Synonyms: devices, lifts, hoists, tools, instruments