Flatfoot Jack and the Fuzz Brigade.
Dear Word Detective: If you were able to get to the bottom of this one you would deserve a medal! In Australia, at least, and, I think, elsewhere, the police are referred to by criminals and other elements of society as “the Jacks.” Long hours of searching and asking questions of other sites has produced exactly zero. How can this be, when the word is so consistently used across the board? Perhaps if you cannot answer my first question, you can answer my second. — Aliki Pavlou
Medal, schmedal. Just send me one of those kangaroo things and a dozen sheep. The roo can do the dishes and the sheep can mow the lawn. They would also give Brownie the Dog (who claims to be part Border Collie) something more tractable to herd than the cats she’s been working with.
“Jacks” as slang for “police” is indeed common in the UK as well as in Australia, but virtually unknown in the US, although “Jacks” may have a close relative in US slang.
To begin at the beginning, “Jack” is what linguists call a hypocoristic (affectionate or “short”) form of the name “John,” derived from the French form of John, “Jacques.” As a slang term, “Jack” has assembled an impressive range of meanings, from “to jack up” (to increase, from the use of “jack” as a mock-personal name for a lifting mechanism) to “jack” meaning “nothing” (as in the eloquent double-negation “You don’t know jack about cars.”).
“Jack” as also been used, since at least the 16th century, as a stand-in for “the common man” or “a fellow,” as in “every man Jack needs a job.” The slang use of “Jack” specifically to mean “police officer” dates to the late 19th century (”A couple of men who were in plain clothes in the tap-room of a public-house, and were suspected by the ‘gaffer’ of being ‘Jacks’,” 1899).
This use of “Jack” to mean “police” seems to have been derived, again as a “short form,” from the use of “John” also as slang for “policeman,” and here things get interesting. This “John” was itself short for “John Darme” a joking Anglicization of “gendarme,” French for “police officer.” So “John Darme” became “John,” which became “Jack” as slang for “cop.”
But wait, it gets better. At least in Australia and New Zealand, “John Hop” was once also slang for “police” via rhyming slang, an underworld “secret language” where the phrase spoken rhymes with the hidden meaning. “John Hop,” of course, rhymes with, and signifies, “cop.” A contraction of “John Hop” (”jonnop”) is still current Australian slang for “police.”
In the US, “John” as slang for “cop” crops up only in “John Law” as the personification of the police and legal system (”We go mooching along the drag, with a sharp lamp out for John Law,” Jack London, 1906). It is possible that “John Law” harks back to the “John Darme” joke, but it may simply spring from the use of “John” in the US since the late 18th century as a personification of the average fellow (”John Q. Public,” etc.), a role now more often filled by “Joe” (as in “Joe Sixpack”).
My first thought on reading of the Australian term “Jacks” for police, was “Union Jack.” I’m not Australian, but I thought perhaps there was a time when those who enforced the law were either seen as (possibly resented) agents of England, or wore the British flag on their persons somewhere.
I don’t speak French, but isn’t “Jacques” the French equivalent of “James” (Jacob)? Isn’t “Jean” the French equivalent of “John”?
‘”jacks” as slang for “police” is indeed common in the UK’ – I don’t think so!
Yep, what RolyMole said. I have NEVER heard the term ‘Jacks’ used in the UK in all my 33 years, and I’ve lived all over. Piffle.
Greg, I’d never heard of the term Jack being referred as police in Australia, but I don’t keep company with criminals.
So unless you are a criminal or associate with them, how can you be sure?
The popular Australian television show “Underbelly” which details the gang wars in Melbourne from 1995 to 2004 uses the term “jacks” very frequently as a replacement for police. I’m Australian and hadn’t heard this term previously, though obviously the writers who researched the organised crime syndicates must think that its common amongst these groups.
Maybe it is a regional thing…Until I moved to melbourne, Victoria (heidelberg to be exact) I had never heard the term ‘Jacks’. It is used in almost every conversation I have heard when people are referring the the Police.
I had asked a friend to explain what it meant and she could only tell me thats what she grew up calling the police. Certainly not a new word…….I think it is probably due to location.
Ps. I dont hang out with criminals (well none that have revealed themselves to me!! LOL!) You only have to have your ears open to hear things that might surprise you!!
I was in the Victoria Police in the 90’s and pretty much all criminals referred to us as “the Jacks”. It was always used in a derogatory way and at the time I thought it to be related to use of “the Jack” to refer to a sexual disease as per the AC/DC song “The Jack”.
It is a US term. It’s because in the US they wore standard military jack boots
The Australian Military Police, MP’s, or Provost Corps were known as the Jacks as early as WWI. Perhaps because of the slang Lance-Jack rank but I suggest the John Darme, gendarme, theory is most likely. Especially when you consider thousands and thousands of off-duty Aussie troops would have had a lot to do with the gendarmes during WWI.
i think its short for jackass
“Jacques” the French equivalent of “James” (Jacob)? Isn’t “Jean” the French equivalent of “John” , No i don’t think so , but would be interesting to think about it