Forms: α. 5 Iac Napes (Nape), Iack (Iake) Napys, 5–6 Iack napis, 6 Iacke Napes (napes), Iack-, iackenapes. β. 6 Iack(e a napes, (Iack of Napes), 7–8 Jack-a-napes; 7 Jack-a-nape. γ. 6–7 Iack(e) an apes (Apes), Iack(e)-an-apes (-Apes), (7 Jack and Apes); 7 Jack an Ape, Jack-an-Ape, 9 jack-an-ape, jackanape. δ. 6–7 Iack(e)anapes, 7 jacanapes, jackanaps, jackinapse, 7– jackanapes; 7 Jackanape. Pl. -apes, -apeses, († -aps’s). [Precise origin uncertain.
So far as yet found, the word appears first as an opprobrious nickname of William de la Pole, Duke of Suffolk (murdered 1450), whose badge was a clog and chain, such as was attached to a tame ape. Hence, in a poem of 1449 (see 2 a), in which other noblemen are denominated by their badges or heraldic emblems, as the Swan, fiery Cresset, Portcullis, Wheat-ear, etc., Suffolk is styled ‘the Ape-clogge,’ and in somewhat later satirical invectives is referred to as an ape, and entitled Jack Napes; this being inferentially already a quasi-proper name for a tame ape, as it is seen to be in 1522. (The converse hypothesis, that Suffolk was for some other reason called ‘Jack Napes,’ and that this nick-name was transferred from him to the ape, does not, on a review of the facts, seem probable.) But of Jack Nape or Napes, and its relation to an ape or apes, no certain explanation can be offered; it was perhaps, in its origin, merely a playful or whimsical name for a tame ape, and the n- might arise as in nunckle and neye (birds-nie, pigs-ney), or as in the by-names Ned, Noll, Nell, and the -s might be in imitation of the -s of surnames such as Jakkes, Hobbes, Symmes, etc., already in use, so that ‘Jack Napes’ parodied a human name and surname. If this was the standing of the name, it is easy to understand that it might never attain to literary use, till it became the nick-name of Suffolk. Be this as it may, the fact remains that Jack Napes is the earliest form, of which Jack-a-Napes, Jack of Napes (? Naples), Jack-an-ape, Jack-and-apes, are later perversions, app. attempts of ‘popular etymology’ to make the expression more intelligible. In accordance with this view, the original sense is here taken as ‘ape,’ of which the use in 2 a is treated as a derived application, though it is in point of date the earliest use that has come down to us, and may possibly, with further evidence, have to stand first.]
1. Name for a tame ape or monkey.
† a. as the quasi-proper name of an ape. Obs.
1522. Skelton, Why not to Court, 651. He grynnes and he gapis As it were iack napis.
1528. Tindale, Obed. Chr. Man, 69. Noddinge, beckinge, and mowinge, as it were Iacke a napes. Ibid. (1531), Exp. 1 John (1537), 23. He delyted in them, as we in ye gestures of Iacke napes.
1546. Bale, Eng. Votaries, I. (1560), 4 b. They mocke and mow at them like Iack a napes.
1583. Stubbes, Anat. Abus., II. (1882), 54. Women that haue as much knowledg in phisick or surgery as hath Iackeanapes.
1592. Warner, Alb. Eng., VII. xxxvii. (1612), 184. Iacke Napes, forsooth, did chafe because I [the Owle] eate my slaue the Bat.
1613. W. Browne, Sheph. Pipe, Wks. 1869, II. 201. Some like him to a trimmed Asse And some to Iacke-an-Apes.
1674. Camden’s Rem. (1870), Proverbs 321. Can Jack an Ape be merry when his clog is at his heel?
b. as common noun: An ape, a monkey. arch.
1526. Skelton, Magnyf., 2124. To mockynge, to mowynge, lyke a iackenapes.
1572. Breton, Flourish on Fancie, in Park, Heliconia, I. 21. A sight of asses then There stoode in battell ray, With iackeanapeses on their backes.
1589. Marprel. Epit., B b. The Reader cannot chuse but haue as great delight therein, as a Iacke an Apes hath in a Whip.
1636. Featly, Clavis Myst., xxxviii. 575. A Jack an Ape, a cat, or some such contemptible creature.
1660. Hickeringill, Jamaica (1661), 81. Like fawning Curre, or mopping Jack-an-Ape.
1698. Fryer, Acc. E. India & P., 7. Some brought Jackanaps’s, such green Ones as are commonly seen in England to be sold.
1740. Chesterf., Lett. (1792), I. lxiv. 180. Dressing him out like a jackanapes, and giving him money to play the fool with.
[arch. 1828. Scott, F. M. Perth, xii. Had I but a rebeck or a guitar at my back, and a jackanapes on my shoulder.
1886. Stevenson, Kidnapped, xvii. (1888), 163. I could see him climbing like a jackanapes.]
2. Applied to a person compared to an ape.
† a. as quasi-proper name, applied to the Duke of Suffolk (whose badge was an ape’s clog and chain). Obs.
[c. 1449. Pol. Poems (Rolls), II. 222. The Rote is ded, the Swanne is goone, The firy Cressett hath lost his lyght;… The White Lioun is leyde to slepe Thorouȝ the envy of the Ape clogge (gloss. Southfolk).] Ibid. (1450), 224 (Arrest Dk. Suffolk). Jack Napys, with his clogge Hath tiede Talbot oure gentille dogge. Wherfore Beamownt, that gentille rache, Hath brought Jack Napis in an eville cache…. [God] save the kynge and God forbede That he suche apes any mo fede. Ibid., 232 (Death Dk. Suffolk). Jac Napes wolde one the see a maryner to ben, With his cloge and his cheyn, to seke more tresour…. For Jac Napes [also For Jac Nape] soule Placebo and Dirige.
† b. as quasi-proper name of a man using the tricks, or displaying the qualities, of an ape. Obs.
1534. Lett. & Pap. Hen. VIII. (Rolls), VII. 39. As he played at cards with me … [he] said I played Jacke Napes with him.
1573. G. Harvey, Letter-Bk. (Camden), 120. I, quoth Iack a napes, by these ten bones, Nothinge happens amiss to a præparid minde.
1575–6. Bp. Barnes, Lett., in Eccl. Proc. Bp. Barnes (Surtees), Pref. 10. Churlish people … who shew but, as the proverb is, Jack of Napes charity in their hearts.
1600. O. E., Repl. Libel, I. vii. 159. It was nothing else, but a loftie tricke of iacke an apes.
c. as common noun: One who is like an ape in tricks, airs or behavior; a ridiculous upstart; a pert, impertinent fellow, who assumes ridiculous airs; a coxcomb. (The current use.) Also, playfully, A pert forward child, a ‘monkey.’
c. 1555. Harpsfield, Divorce Hen. VIII. (Camden), 291. This the Divell’s Jackanapes made pastime to Lucifer.
1592. Greene, Upst. Courtier, H j b. A iollie light timberd Iacke a Napes, in a sute of watchet Taffata.
1601. Shaks., All’s Well, III. v. 88. Hel. Which is he? Dia. That Iacke an-apes with scarfes.
1610. Histrio-m., VI. 56. Now stands at every door a Iack and Apes, And tels me ’tis too late, his Lord hath din’d.
a. 1654. Selden, Table-t. (Arb.), 96. They tell him he’s a Jackanapes, a Rogue and a Rascal.
1709. Tatler, No. 86, ¶ 3. Upon which the pert Jackanapes Nick. Doubt tipp’d me the Wink.
1748. Chesterf., Lett. (1774), I. 349. I always put these pert jackanapeses out of countenance.
1820. Scott, Abbot, iv. She hath favoured, doth favour, and will favour, this jackanapes.
1850. Kingsley, Alt. Locke, iv. A whiskered Jackanapes, like that officer … set to command grey-headed men before he can command his own temper.
† 3. Applied contemptuously to a crucifix. Obs.
1562. Bullingham, Lett., in Foxe, A. & M. (1583), 1935. I will rather have these knees pared of, then I will kneele to yonder Iacknapes.
4. Mining. ‘The small guide pulleys of a whim’ (Gresley, Gloss. Coal Mining, 1883).
† 5. Jackanapes on horseback: name for a proliferous variety of marigold, daisy, etc., in which additional flower-heads spring from the principal one; also for a monstrous variety of cowslip or oxlip in which the calycine segments are converted into leaves. Obs.
1597. Gerarde, Herbal, II. ccxliii. § 7. 603. Calendula maior prolifera … This fruitfull or much bearing Marigolde, is … called of the vulgar sort of women Iacke an apes a horse backe. Ibid., cclx. § 2. 635. Oxelip … whose flowers are curled and wrinckled after a most strange maner, which our women haue named, Iacke an apes on horsebacke.
1629. Parkinson, Paradisi, v. 12. Double daisies … both white and red, both blush and speckled or party-coloured, besides that which is called Iacke-an Apes on Horsebacke.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, VII. 70/2. The Jack-an-Apes on Horse-back, or the fantastick Cowslip, hath the flower all green and jagged, like to a Juli flower.
6. attrib.
1598. Shaks., Merry W., I. iv. 113. You, Iack ’Nape: giue-’a this Letter to Sir Hugh, by gar it is a shallenge … I will teach a scuruy Iack-a-nape Priest to meddle, or make.
1622. Massinger & Dekker, Virg. Mart., II. i. All my fear is of that pink-an-eye jack-an-apes boy, her page.
1660. Pepys, Diary, 5 July. This morning my brother Tom brought me my jackanapes coat with silver buttons.
1813. Mar. Edgeworth, Patron. (1832), I. iii. 44. The squire … declared that he would not be brow-beat by any … jackanapes colonel.
1881. Besant & Rice, Chapl. of Fleet, II. xvii. Any jackanapes lawyer … might think it fine thus to insult … a harmless nobleman.
Hence (nonce-wds.) Jackanapery, action characteristic of a jackanapes; Jackanapish, Jackanapsian adjs., having the character of a jackanapes.
1842. Fraser’s Mag., XXVI. 448. That monument of congenial jackanapery reared … in caricature of an Elizabethan mansion.
1880. ‘Vernon Lee,’ Belcaro, vi. 151. Calling in Offenbach or Lecocq to rewrite that air in true jackanapsian style.
1884. J. Bull’s Neighb., vii. 50. Go into a bureau de poste, and see how you will be insulted by the jackanapish officialism there.
