jackanapes

An 1892 photograph of an organ grinder with a monkey. In the past, a tame ape or monkey kept for entertainment or as a pet was colloquially called a jackanapes (sense 1).

The heraldic badge of the English military commander and statesman William de la Pole, 1st Duke of Suffolk (1396–1450) was an ape’s chain and clog (that is, a weight attached to the ape to hinder its movement). This led to Suffolk being given the derogatory nickname “Iack napys”, from which the word jackanapes is derived.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈd͡ʒækəneɪps/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈd͡ʒækəˌneɪps/
• Hyphenation: jack‧an‧apes

From Middle English iack napys, iac nape, iac napes (“derogatory nickname of the English military commander and statesman William de la Pole, 1st Duke of Suffolk (1396–1450)”),^[1] probably from Jacun or Jakin (“pet forms of the male name Jack”) + ape (“ape, monkey”)^[2] + -s (possibly modelled after surnames such as Hobbes and Jakkes), referring to Suffolk’s heraldic badge which was an ape’s chain and clog (“weight such as a block of wood or log attached to an animal to hinder motion”) (see the image, right). It is uncertain whether the word was first coined as a nickname for Suffolk (the earliest known uses), or to refer to an ape or an ape-like person. If the word was originally a nickname, some early uses of sense 2.1 (“person thought to behave like an ape or monkey”) may allude to Suffolk who was widely regarded as an upstart, having risen from the merchant class.^[3][4]

In later uses, the middle element of the word was often treated as the indefinite article a or an, that is, as if the word meant “Jack, an ape”.^[3]

jackanapes (plural jackanapeses)

2. (obsolete) (A proper name for) an ape or monkey, especially a tame one kept for entertainment or as a pet.
   • a. 1530 (date written), John Skelton, “Magnyfycence, a Goodly Interlude and a Mery, […]”, in Alexander Dyce, editor, The Poetical Works of John Skelton: […], volume I, London: Thomas Rodd, […], published 1843, →OCLC, page 294, lines 2124–2125:

     To iettynge, to iaggynge, and to full of iapes; / To mockynge, to mowynge, to lye a iackenapes: […]

   • a. 1530 (date written), John Skelton, “Here after Foloweth a Lytell Boke, whiche hath to Name Why Come Ye Nat to Courte? […]”, in Alexander Dyce, editor, The Poetical Works of John Skelton: […], volume II, London: Thomas Rodd, […], published 1843, →OCLC, page 47, lines 650–651:

     He grynnes and he gapis, / As it were iack napis.

   • 1637, William Camden, Iohn [i.e., John] Philipot, “Certaine Proverbs, Poemes, or Posies, Epigrams, Rythmes, and Epitaphs of the English Nation in Former Times, and Some of this Present Age. [Proverbs.]”, in Remaines Concerning Britaine: […], 5th edition, London: […] Thomas Harper, for John Waterson, […], →OCLC, page 294:

     Can Iack an Ape be merry vvhen his clog is at his heele.

   • 1828 May 15, [Walter Scott], chapter XI, in Chronicles of the Canongate. Second Series. […] (The Fair Maid of Perth), volume I, Edinburgh: […] [Ballantyne and Co.] for Cadell and Co.; London: Simpkin and Marshall, →OCLC, page 321:

     A fair sight we are; and had I but a rebeck or guitar at my back, and a jackanapes on my shoulder, we should seem as joyous a brace of strollers as ever touched string at a castle gate.

   • 1886 May 1 – July 31, Robert Louis Stevenson, “The Death of the Red Fox”, in Kidnapped, being Memoirs of the Adventures of David Balfour in the Year 1751: […], London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 1886, →OCLC, page 163:

     […] I could see him climbing like a jackanapes, for that part was again very steep; […]

3. (by extension)
   2. (derogatory, dated) (A proper name for) a person thought to behave like an ape or monkey, for example, in being impudent, mischievous, vain, etc.; specifically (chiefly humorous), an impudent or mischievous child.

      Synonyms: see Thesaurus:malapert, Thesaurus:troublemaker

      Coordinate term: (obsolete, rare) Jane-of-apes

      • 1573 September (date written), Gabriel Harvey, “The Schollars Loove, or Reconcilement of Contraryes. The Very First Inglish Meeter that Ever I Made.”, in Edward John Long Scott, editor, Letter-book of Gabriel Harvey, A.D. 1573–1580. […] (Camden Society Publications, New Series; 33), [London]: […] [Nichols and Sons] for the Camden Society, published 1884, →OCLC, page 120:

        I [Aye], quoth Jack a napes, by these ten bones, / Nothing happens amiss to a præparid minde, / Tis good philosophy, katt will to kinde.

      • 1611 April (first recorded performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Cymbeline”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i], pages 375–376:

        VVas there euer man had ſuch lucke? vvhen I kiſt the Iacke vpon an vp-caſt, to be hit avvay? I had a hundred pound on't: and then a vvhoreſon Iacke-an-apes muſt take me vp for ſvvearing, as if I borrovved mine oathes of him, and might not ſpend them at my pleaſure.

      • 1820, [Walter Scott], chapter IV, in The Abbot. […], volume I, Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne & Co.] for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […]; and for Archibald Constable and Company, and John Ballantyne, […], →OCLC, page 89:

        Now, she hath favoured, doth favour, and will favour, this jack-an-ape,—for what good part about him I know not, save that as one noble lady will love a messan dog, and another a screaming popinjay, and a third a Barbary ape, so doth it please our noble dame to set her affections upon this stray elf of a page, […]

      • 1844 May, Charles Dickens, “Threatening Letter to Thomas Hood, from an Ancient Gentleman”, in B. W. Matz, editor, Miscellaneous Papers […], London: Chapman & Hall, published 1908, →OCLC, page 7:

        I beg to say, that I use those last expressions advisedly, sir, and not in the sense in which they are now used by Jackanapeses. There were no Jackanapeses when I was a boy, Mr. Hood. England was Old England when I was young.

      • 1850, [Charles Kingsley], “Tailors and Soldiers”, in Alton Locke, Tailor and Poet. […], volume I, London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC, page 61:

        [W]hat right has any free, reasonable soul on earth, to sell himself for a shilling a-day to murder any man, right or wrong— […] just because such a whiskered, profligate jackanapes as that officer, […] is set to command grey-headed men before he can command his own meanest passions.

      • 1873–1884 (date written), Samuel Butler, chapter XXXVI, in R[ichard] A[lexander] Streatfeild, editor, The Way of All Flesh, London: Grant Richards, published 1903, →OCLC, page 158:

        Then I set the boy down as a conceited young jackanapes, which no doubt he was,—but so are a great many other young people of Ernest's age.

      • 1894, R[ichard] D[oddridge] Blackmore, “The Pride of Life”, in Perlycross: A Tale of the Western Hills, London: Sampson Low, Marston, & Company […], →OCLC, page 425:

        […] I'd soon make you laugh the other side of your mouth, you guffawing jackanapes.

      • 1904 (first performance), Joseph Conrad, “One Day More: A Play in One Act”, in Austin Harrison, editor, The English Review, volume XV, London: […] Richard Clay and Sons, published August–November 1913, →OCLC, scene ii, page 21:

        The boy wouldn't dare. (Rising choler.) Wouldn't dare to refuse the only sensible girl for miles around. That stubborn jackanapes refuse to marry a girl like you!

      • 1926 August, John Galsworthy, “Soames Keeps His Eyes Open”, in The Silver Spoon, London: William Heinemann, →OCLC, part I, page 46:

        Who were the aristocracy, to give themselves airs? Jackanapes!

        Appears to have been treated as a plural of jackanape.

      • 1996 August 1, George R[aymond] R[ichard] Martin, “Sansa”, in A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire; 1), New York, N.Y.: Bantam Books, →ISBN:

        By his extreme youth, he can only be a prancing jackanapes, and so I name him.

   3. (obsolete, Christianity, derogatory, rare) A crucifix.
      • 1562 May 5 (date written; Gregorian calendar), Ihon [i.e., John] Bullingham, quoting Julins Palmer, “The History and Martirdom of a Learned and Vertuous Yong Man Called Iulines Palmer”, in John Foxe, Actes and Monuments of These Latter and Perillous Dayes, […], London: […] Iohn Day, […], published 30 March 1563 (Gregorian calendar), →OCLC, book V, page [1610]:

        I wyl rather haue these knees pared of, then I wil kneele to yonder iacknapes (meaning the rode) God healpe me I am borne to trouble and aduersity in this world.

   4. (obsolete, mining) A small pulley which keeps a rope in line when lifting ore, water, etc., from a mine.

Jackanapes is also analyzed as a plural form due to the -s, which led to the back-formation jackanape as a singular form.^[5]

• jackanape, jack-a-napes

• jackaninny

From jackanape +‎ -s (suffix forming regular plurals of nouns).

jackanapes

1. plural of jackanape

• Charles P. G. Scott (1892) “IV.—English Words which hav Gaind or Lost an Initial Consonant by Attraction.”, in Transactions of the American Philological Association, volume XXIII, Boston, Mass.: [F]or the [American Philological] Association by Ginn & Company, […], →ISSN, →OCLC, pages 190–193.