jakes
(dʒeɪks)
Forms: 6 iacques, 6–7 iaxe, iakes, iaques, 7 jacks, 7–8 jaques, 7– jakes (also 6 iake, 8 jack). pl., 6 iaxes, 7 jakeses, jaqueses, 8 jakes's; also in same form as sing.
[Origin unascertained; it has been suggested to be from the proper name Jaques, Jakes; or from Jakke, ‘Jack’, quasi Jakkes, ‘Jack's’.
(‘Gakehouse’ in 1438 Tintinhull Churchw. Acc. (Som. Rec. Soc.) p. 179, is an editorial misreading of ‘Bakehouse’.)]
1. a. A privy.
| 153. in Ellis Orig. Lett. Ser. iii. III. 84 The Iaques was very well doon. 1538 Inv. in J. W. Clark Barnwell Introd. 24 The jakes of the dorter. 1549 Bale Journ. Leland Pref. B j, A great nombre of them whych purchased those superstycyouse mansyons, reserued of those Lybrarie bokes, some to serue theyr iakes, some to scoure theyr candlestyckes. 1552 Huloet, Siege, iacques, bogard, or draught, latrina. 1570 Levins Manip. 12/13 Iake, forica. 1596 Harington Metam. Ajax Pref. (1814) 14 Because I will write of a Jakes. 1620 Naworth Househ. Bk. 145 To a tyller for tylling the jacks, vjd. 1634 Documents agst. Prynne (Camden) 12 They..dragged his carckesse throughe the cittye, and cast it into the common jakes. 1649 R. Hodges Plain Direct. 12 Let the hous bee made a jakes for Mr. Jaques. 1657 Manchester Crt. Leet Rec. (1887) IV. 202 Noe close stoole, Jackes, Carrion or garbage be cast vpon the Ackers Middinge. 1701 C. Wolley Jrnl. New York (1860) 26 The more unhealthful it may prove, by reason of Jaques, Dunghills and other excrementitious stagnations. 1727 P. Walker Life of Peden in Biogr. Presb. (1827) I. 144 He [Arius] went..into a common Jack and purg'd out all his Inwards. 1788 V. Knox Winter Even. I. ii. xv. 211 His book is a nasty book, and fit only for the jakes. 1855 Kingsley Westw. Ho (1861) 168 The fox..that..jumped down a jakes to escape the hounds. 1913 L. Woolf Village in Jungle iv. 54 The headman's brother is to marry a sweeper of jakes! 1922 Joyce Ulysses 68 He kicked open the crazy door of the jakes. 1969 Listener 26 June 902/3 He is at his best when not occupied with symbols..but concerned to tell how the keeper of an ‘underground jakes’ mistakes a police stool-pigeon for a real poof. |
b. transf. and
fig.| 1579 Tomson Calvin's Serm. Tim. 967/1 What vermine, I pray you, is there of Monkes, and Priestes, and all that Cleargie?..that filthie and stinking iaxe hath filled the world so full. 1637 Gillespie Eng. Pop. Cerem. Ep. B iij, Cast forth as things accursed into the Iakes of eternall detestation. 1660 Life & Death Mrs. Rump 2 Hell..that stinking poysonous place called the Ile of Jaqueses. 1701 De Foe True-born Eng. 194 We have been Europe's Sink, the Jakes where she Voids all her Offal Out-cast Progeny. 1753 Smollett Ct. Fathom (1784) 13/1 Who eagerly explore the jakes of Rabelais, for amusement. 1829 Bentham Petit. Justice 173 The jakes, of late so notorious by the name of the Secondary's Office in the city of London. |
2. Excrement; filth.
s.w. dial.| 1847–78 Halliw., Jakes..applied in Devon to any kind of filth or litter. 1880 in East & West Cornw. Glossaries. 1886 in Elworthy W. Somerset Word-book. |
3. attrib. and
Comb., as
jakes door,
jakes-like adj.;
† jakes-barreller,
† jakes-farmer,
jakes-man, a man employed to clean out privies; so
† jakes-farming;
† jakes-house = jakes.
| 1596 Nashe Saffron Walden 155 Like a *iakes barreller and a Gorbolone. |
| 1557–8 Louth Rec. (1891) 110 One locke to the *Jakes dore. |
| 1591 Percivall Sp. Dict., Privadero, a *iakes farmer. a 1618 Sylvester Tobacco Battered 267 Iakes-farmers, Fidlers, Ostlers, Oysterers. 1639 Horn & Rob. Gate Lang. Unl. lviii. §624 The common draught⁓house..which the jakes-farmer..makes cleane. |
| 1577 tr. Bullinger's Decades (1592) 890 A doonghill God,..a god of the *iakeshouse. |
| 1606 Sylvester Du Bartas ii. iv. i. David 1251 Flames from his eies, from's mouth coms *Iakes⁓like fumes. |
| 1630 Davenant Cruel Brother Wks. (1673) 475 On that branch appears a Hang-man, Then a *Jakes-man, then, a Tinker. |