Jack-ˈtar
[See Jack n.1 3.]
A familiar appellation for a common sailor.
| 1781 G. Parker View Society I. 53 Our house in this place [Gosport] was chiefly supported by Jack-tars. 1822 Lamb Elia Ser. i. Old Actors, A downright concretion of a Wapping sailor—a jolly warm-hearted Jack Tar. |
| attrib. 1892 W. S. Gilbert Foggerty's Fairy 179 He had mixed it [brandy and water] on the Jack-tar principle of ‘half-and-half’. |