James
(dʒeɪmz)
[a. OF. James (Gemmes, *Jaimes) = Sp. Jaime, Pr., Cat. Jaume, Jacme. It. Giacomo:—popular L. *ˈJacomus, for ˈJacobus, altered from L. Iaˈcōbus, a. Gr. Ἰάκωβος, ad. Heb. yaﻋăqōb Jacob, a frequent Jewish name at all times, and thus the name of two of Christ's disciples (St. James the Greater and St. James the Less); whence a frequent Christian name.]
I. A Christian name of men: hence in various transferred senses. (See also Jeames.)
1. a. A sovereign. slang. (Cf. Jacobus.) b. James Royal, a Scottish silver coin of James VI, the Sword dollar.
| 1567 in Keith Hist. Ch. & St. Scot. App. (1734) 150 That thair be cunyeit ane Penny of Silver callit the James Ryall,..of Weicht an Unce Troyis-weicht,..havand on the ane Syde ane Swerd with ane Crown upoun the same. 1858 A. Mayhew Paved w. Gold iii. xvii. 365 The firm..was in the habit of pricing its ‘half-James’ and ‘James’ (i.e. half and whole sovereigns) at 2s. 10d. and 7s. 1893 P. H. Emerson Signor Lippo xxi, He gives him the half-James, and told him never to bother him no more. |
2. A burglar's crow-bar; = jemmy n. 6.
| 1812 J. H. Vaux Flash Dict., Jemmy or James, an iron⁓crow. 1885 Pall Mall G. 29 May 11/2 The uses and varieties of the James will be at once understood when it is explained that it is used as a lever of the third order. 1896 A. Morrison Child Yago 319 He wondered what had become of the james and the gimlets. |
3. A sheep's head; = jemmy n. 7.
| 1827 Becher's Every Nt. Bk. 38 (Farmer) Hear us, great James, thou poetry of mutton; Delicious profile of the beast that bleats. 1870 Lond. Figaro 2 July (ibid.), Club your pence, and you may attain to the glories of Osmazome and James—that is, of baked sheep's head. |
II. St. James, either apostle of the name; esp. St. James the Greater, chosen as the Patron Saint of Spain, whose shrine at Compostella was a famous centre of pilgrimage. St. James's day, St. James's tide (dial. James-mass), the 25th of July, dedicated to St. James the Greater.
| a 1225 Ancr. R. 192 For þi, seið sein Iame, ‘Omne gaudium [etc.]’. c 1386 Chaucer Shipman's T. 355, I thanke yow by god and by seint Iame. a 1568 R. Ascham Scholem. i. (Arb.) 36 Thies yong scholers be chosen commonlie, as yong apples be chosen by children, in a faire garden about S. Iames tyde. 1641 Churchw. Acc. St. Margaret's, Westminster (Nichols 1797) 47 Paid to the singing men of the Abbie towards their feast at S{supt} James's tide. 1701 Lond. Gaz. No. 3718/4 The Fairs held at the City of Bristol at St. James-Tide..will not begin before the 25th of July. 1898 Westm. Gaz. 25 July 10/1 There is a popular saw that ‘Whoever eats oysters on St. James's Day will never want money’, and this is due to an indistinct connexion with the saint of the scallop shell. |
b. St. James's wort (also dial. James wort, James-weed), Ragwort, Senecio Jacobæa.
| 1578 Lyte Dodoens i. xlviii. 69 S. Iames worte groweth almost euery where, alongst by wayes and waterish places, and..in the borders of fieldes. 1579 Langham Gard. Health (1633) 577 Saint James wort, it hath a speciall vertue to heale wounds. 1597 Gerarde Herbal ii. xxvi. §1. 218 Saint Iames his woort or Ragwoort. |
III. Also, a surname; hence, James's powder, a febrifuge very popular during the latter part of the 18th century and at the beginning of the 19th; prepared by Dr. Robert James (1703–1776).
| a 1776 R. James Diss. Fevers (1778) 94 Suppose a patient or his friends, should insist upon trying James's Powders, a little confederacy might easily blast all hopes. 1801 H. Swinburne in Crts. Europe (1841) II. 304 They say his [Geo. III's] illness was brought on by his taking a most extraordinary dose of James's powders of his own accord. |