Jaques

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A melancholy lord in Shakespeare's comedy As You Like It ; a masculine given name, the French form of James
2. The brooding courtier who muses on the seven ages of man in Shakespeare's As You Like It ; a masculine personal name of French origin derived from James
3. A pensive attendant famed for his speech on life's stages in As You Like It ; a male first name, the French equivalent of James

Etymology: Jaques is the French form of James, borrowed into English from Old French "Jaques," which descends from Late Latin "Iacobus," itself a Latinized form of the Hebrew name Ya'akov (Jacob). The Old French form was common in medieval France, where it turned up in many personal names, and English speakers took it up in its French shape mainly through literature and aristocratic naming. Its most famous bearer is Shakespeare's Jaques in "As You Like It" (written around 1599), the melancholy lord who delivers the speech beginning "All the world's a stage" and the "seven ages of man." Shakespeare seems to have picked the name for its French flavour, since the play is set partly in the Forest of Arden and many of its characters carry French-style names. The character's gloom is what fixed the name in the English imagination, so that to many readers "Jaques" suggests a sour, sardonic temperament before it suggests a saint.