| 释义 |
▪ I. Jim Crow1, Jim-crow, jim crow|ˈdʒɪm ˈkrəʊ|
[From the refrain of a popular old Negro song, ‘Wheel about and turn about and jump Jim Crow’.
Orig. U.S., but the main current senses (1 f, and its attrib. and verbal uses, with Jim Crowism) are used throughout the English-speaking world, although chiefly in U.S. contexts.]
1. The name of a Negro plantation song of the early nineteenth century; also, a stage presentation of a song and dance first performed by Thomas D. Rice (1808–60) and subsequently by other actors dressed as ‘nigger minstrels’.
c1832T. D. Rice (title) Jim Crow. Celebrated comic song or ballad. 1832Amer. Sentinel (Philadelphia) 11 Sept. 3/1 (Advt.), Mr. Rice will appear and sing Jim Crow. 1835Vade Mecum (Philadelphia) 28 Mar. 2/7 ‘Ditanti Palpita’, ‘Jim Crow’, ‘Old Hundred’, with two or three waltzes played in different keys usually form the Hotchpotchiana of their delicious entertainment. 1837New Yorker 16 Dec. 610/2 The impulse of despair must have tempted them to strike up ‘Jim Crow’. 1841Thackeray in Britannia 15 May 315/4 The organ-man..struck up two beautiful melodies, viz., ‘Getting up Stairs’, and ‘Jim Crow’. 1926N.Y. Times 26 Dec. vii. 8/2 From ‘Old Jim Crow’ to ‘Black Bottom’, the negro dances..are African in inspiration.
b. Phr. to jump Jim Crow: to execute the dance that was part of a theatrical (or street) performance of Jim Crow; to jump about. Also fig., to change one's political principles, to desert one's party.
1833Sk. & Eccentr. D. Crockett 41 You nebber get to Heben till you jump Jim Crow. 1836Louisville (Kentucky) Jrnl. 16 Sept., A Mr. Collier of Virginia has ‘jumped Jim Crow’. 1840Log Cabin Song-Bk. 38 Fo he's the man to jump Jim Crow, And prove that black is white. 1857Observer 12 Apr. 2/4 A street clown once told him (Mr. Mayhew) that..he jumped ‘Jim Crow’ for twelve hours in the mud and wet of the streets, and he carried home..the sum of 15 d. 1922Galsworthy Windows i. 19 Not much balance about us. We just run about and jump Jim Crow.
c. A Negro character in the Jim Crow song; T. D. Rice or another performer of the Jim Crow act; in England, a street performer of this type of act (see b).
1835Vade Mecum (Philadelphia) 24 Jan. 3/7 Jim Crow is in the town, about to ‘wheel about’ for the edification of the Brandywine. Daddy Rice will surprise them. 1851H. Mayhew London Labour I. 4/1 The street-actors—as clowns, ‘Billy Barlows’, ‘Jim Crows’, and others. 1861Ibid. III. 121/1 A few minutes afterwards I saw this man dressed as Jim Crow, with his face blackened, dancing and singing in the streets as if he was the lightest-hearted fellow in all London. 1867Atlantic Monthly Nov. 608/2 As a national or ‘race’ illustration, behind the footlights, might not ‘Jim Crow’ and a black face tickle the fancy of pit and circle?
d. A turncoat. (Cf. the fig. sense of b.)
1837New Yorker 16 Dec. 610/2 An engraving of the veritable Jim Crow is to be seen in every print-shop, with the exception that the face of Lord Lyndhurst usurps that of Rice, his lordship being placed in that peculiar attitude which the Liberals denominate ‘turning about—wheeling about’ from political consistency and common sense. 1840J. Romilly Diary 13 Nov. (1967) 204 The blackgds in the gallery hooted & called him Jim Crow.
e. A Black person, a Negro. depreciatory.
1838‘Uncle Sam’ in Bentley's Misc. IV. 582 Don't be standing there like the wooden Jim Crow at the blacking maker's store. 1841H. Playfair Hugo Playfair Papers I. 3 A portmanteau and carpet-bag..were snatched up by one of the hundreds of nigger-porters, or Jim Crows, who swarm at the many landing-places to help passengers. 1948Sat. Rev. (U.S.) 27 Mar. 36/1 Jim Crow works at the depot.
f. Racial discrimination, spec. against Blacks in the U.S. More usually attrib., or as Jim Crowism (below).
1943R. Ottley New World A-Coming 69 Negro soldiers had suffered all forms of Jim Crow, humiliation, discrimination, slander, and even violence at the hands of the white civilian population. 1946J. H. Burma in A. Dundes Mother Wit (1973) 625/2 To the Negro any joke is particularly humorous if it shows Jim Crow ‘backfiring’ on a Southerner. 1958J. Asman in P. Gammond Decca Bk. Jazz xiv. 166 The difficulties facing any studio recordings by Negro artists are almost insurmountable in the Southern States, where Jim Crow is predominant, even to the present time. 1969N.Y. Times 16 Jan. 40/5 Those of them who are young and loud want segregated colleges... It's Jim Crow when we want it... Why don't they think of it as James Eagle? 1971Black Scholar June 4/1 The historical literature..suggests that Jim Crow was directed more at the black male than the black female. 1973A. Dundes Mother Wit 231 Since white southerners obviously spoke in dialect..this practice was little more than another insidious form of Jim Crow. 1973Freedomways XIII. 30 One hundred years of frustration and battle have not resulted in victory over Jim Crow and racism.
2. An implement for bending or straightening iron rails by the pressure of a screw.
1875in Knight Dict. Mech.
3. attrib., as (sense 1 a) Jim Crow song; (sense 1 b) jim-crow planing-machine (see quot. 1875); (sense 1 c) Jim Crow boots, Jim Crow dance, Jim Crow hat; (sense 1 e) Jim Crow line; (sense 1 f) Jim Crow bill, Jim Crow car, Jim Crow college, Jim Crow conditions, Jim Crow law, Jim Crow school, Jim Crow town. Also (with possessive case) Jim Crow's nose = John Crow('s) nose (John Crow).
1835Knickerbocker V. 47 Some jolly slaves..were waiting to take us into a ferry-boat, which they rowed, singing some Jim Crow song. 1842Liberator (Boston) 21 Jan. 10/1 It is this spirit that compels the colored man to..ride in the ‘Jim-Crow car’. 1847Chicago Jrnl. 7 Oct., We do not mean Jim Crow dances and poor songs worse sung. 1851G. S. Cooper Jrnl. Expedition Auckland to Taranaki 58 A man in a common shooting jacket, a Jim Crow hat, trowsers rather the worse for wear and a pair of moustaches. 1851Mrs. Stowe Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852) II. xx. 33, I thought she was rather a funny specimen in the Jim Crow line. 1866Lindley & Moore Treas. Bot. II. 638/1 Jim Crow's nose. A West Indian name for Phyllocoryne. 1875Knight Dict. Mech. 1216/1 The jim-crow planing-machine is furnished with a reversing tool, to plane both ways, and named from its peculiar motion, as the tool is able to ‘wheel about and turn about’. 1887C. B. George 40 Yrs. on Rail viii. 160 An educated colored man..found, on going from Boston to Salem, his home, that he must ride in the Jim Crow car. 1900Morning Leader 19 Dec. 5/5 ‘Jim-Crow’ Cars. In many Southern States there are laws compelling the railroad companies to run on their trains separate cars for colored people..which are called ‘Jim-Crow’ cars. 1902A. H. Lewis Wolfville Days xvi. 235 An' whyever don't you-all wear leather chapps that a-way, instead of them jimcrow boots an' trousers? 1903Sun (N.Y.) 29 Nov. 7 The members of the committee have arranged with the parents of negro children to send them all to the Jim Crow school, thus entirely separating the white and negro pupils. 1904Nation (N.Y.) 17 Mar. 202 The Jim Crow bills now before the Maryland Legislature. 1904Richmond (Virginia) Times-Despatch 25 May 10 Violating the Jim Crow law by allowing negroes to ride in the same car with whites. 1926A. Niles in W. C. Handy Blues 20 ‘Jim Crow’ songs with syncopated airs..were current long before the Civil War. 1931W. Faulkner Sanctuary xix. 167 It was full too, the door between it and the jim crow car swinging open. 1949L. Feather Inside Be-Bop i. 3 Big band jazz had been played by Negro orchestras, frequently under Jim Crow conditions. 1957W. C. Handy Father of Blues xiv. 195 Having spent much time in Jim Crow towns, I was under the illusion that these Negro musicians would jump at the chance to patronize one of their own publishers. 1960New Left Rev. Sept.–Oct. 39/2 The Uncle Tom presidents of the captive Jim Crow colleges. 1971Black World Mar. 75/1 Black people will continue to see themselves under jim crow conditions. 1973A. Dundes Mother Wit 397 Riding on Jim Crow cars could literally make a Negro sick.
So Jim Crow v. trans., to segregate persons ethnically, to discriminate against (Blacks or other non-whites); so Jim Crowing vbl. n.; Jim Crowism, the institution of segregation, the practice of ‘racial’ discrimination; also, the act of deserting one's political party.
1837N.Y. Mirror 7 Oct. 118/1 Then, to counterbalance this good, you have entailed upon those British islands the curse of Jim Crowism. 1841Times 21 June 5/6 His propensities to what they call ‘Jim Crowism’ in politics. 1921United Free Ch. Miss. Rec. Jan. 2/1 [S. Africa] The picture he gives of the ‘jimcrowing’ and ostracizing of the natives in public places and the working of the pass-laws up-country is dark enough. 1923Nation (N.Y.) 15 Aug. 155 But they are not ‘jim crowed’. 1925Amer. Mercury Jan. 87/2 In his celebrated Atlanta speech he justified all the forms of Jim-Crowism. 1932E. Wilson Devil take Hindmost iii. 17 The Negroes..are discriminated against by a general policy of Jim Crowism. 1942C. Himes Black on Black (1973) 216 Out of the bootings and the lynchings and the jim-crowings..will come our strength. 1948Sat. Rev. (U.S.) 24 July 16/3 It is to his eternal credit that he ripped through the Jim Crowism of our national game by giving a fine Negro athlete a chance to play in organized baseball. 1955L. Feather Encycl. Jazz i. 22 The Negro musician was Jim Crowed from the day he first became aware of music. 1969C. Himes Blind Man with Pistol i. 16 It was obviously a jim-crowed convent, and no one ever dreamed that white Catholics would act any different from anyone else who was white. 1971Rand Daily Mail (Johannesburg) 4 Dec. 4/2 Since I visited South Africa, the Government has opened the door to dozens of prominent Blacks and ensured that they were not Jim Crowed. (Jim Crowed means treated like Blacks in the old segregationist United States South.)
▪ II. Jim Crow2 colloq.|ˈdʒɪm ˈkrəʊ|
[Coined by W. S. Churchill; cf. crow n.1 8 and crow's nest.]
A roof-top spotter of enemy aircraft; also his look-out post (see also quot. 1943).
1940W. S. Churchill Into Battle (1941) 278 Our plan must be to use the siren..as an alert and not as an alarm, and to have a system of highly trained what I may call Jim Crows or look-out men, who will give the alarm when immediate danger is expected at any point. 1941Battle of Britain Aug.–Oct. 1940 (Ministry of Information) 21 Except when roof-watchers—the Prime Minister's ‘Jim Crows’—signalled that danger was imminent, life went on as usual and still does. 1943Hunt & Pringle Service Slang 41 Jim Crow, normally used to describe the corps of roof-spotters guarding our large buildings. Now taken into service slang to denote the man on watch when ‘unofficial business’, such as cards, is being transacted. 1952R. Sherbrooke-Walker Khaki & Blue v. 43 An anti-aircraft post, with a good view of the sky, had already been installed on top of one of the forts. To convert this into ‘Jim Crow’, it was turned into a post de luxe. |