jacktar

See also: jack-tar and Jack Tar

English

Alternative forms

Etymology

From jack (“common man or sailor”) +‎ tar (“tarpaulin”), used for a common sailor dating back to the 1600s.

Noun

jacktar (plural jacktars)

  2. (chiefly British) A sailor; especially, one in the Royal Navy.
    Synonyms: jack, tar
    • 1857, “The Masker's Song”, in Robert Bell, editor, Ancient Poems, Ballads, and Songs of the Peasantry of England‎[1]:
      O! the next that steps up is a jolly Jack tar, / He sailed with Lord [Nelson][sic], during last war: / He’s right on the sea, Old England to view: / He’s come a pace-egging with so jolly a crew.
    • 1884, John Gregory Bourke, The snake-dance of the Moquis of Arizona:
      Wreaths of blue smoke curled gracefully from above the pipes of our loungers, who, gradually growing tired of chaffing each other, or of vainly wooing the drowsy god, fell into the ever-pleasant frontier habit of spinning yarns, an art in which the borderer rivals any gallant Jack Tar who ever trod a forecastle.
    • 1887, “Ruddigore”, W. S. Gilbert (lyrics), Arthur Sullivan (music)‎[2], Act II:
      I am a jolly Jack Tar, / My star, / And you are the fairest, / The richest and rarest / Of innocent lasses you are, / By far
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