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Don't give a jack

Posted by ESC on June 09, 2007

In Reply to: Don't give a jack posted by ESC on June 09, 2007

: : : Hi I am new to this site and I'm not really comp lit!
: : : Does any one know the meaning of the saying "I don't give a jack"?

: : Is it possible that the phrase was "I don't give jack"? That would mean, I don't care anything, I don't care at all. Perhaps the phrase was written by someone not entirely at home with it. Normally, "jack" in a phrase like this is not a commodity measured in units, like "a jack." I don't myself use or hear used the word in this meaning, but I would much more expect to see, "I don't care jack."
: : SS
: : SS

: The whole phrase is: I don't give jack sh*t. But I don't know why "jack."

Researching "jack" I found this so far:

JACK - Money since 1859. But at first used to mean only a small coin or a small amount of money. English slang for a farthing since 1700. Page 103. Jock and jack have meant the penis since the 16th century (from the familiar names for John). Page 377. "Speaking Freely: A Guided Tour of American English from Plymouth Rock to Silicon Valley" by Stuart Berg Flexner and Anne H. Soukhanov (Oxford University Press, New York, 1997).

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