Jim CrowJim-crowjim crown.1
/ˈdʒɪm ˈkrəʊ/Originally U.S., but the main current sense ( 1f), and its attributive and verbal uses, with Jim Crowism) are used throughout the English-speaking world, although chiefly in U.S. contexts.
1.
a. The name of an early 19th-century plantation song of the American South; (also) a stage presentation of a song and dance first performed by Thomas D. Rice (1808–60) and subsequently by other actors dressed as blackface minstrels.
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society > leisure > the arts > performance arts > variety, etc. > [noun] > performance of black minstrels > item in
Jim Crow1832
society > leisure > the arts > music > type of music > vocal music > types of song > [noun] > folk-song > black
Jim Crow1832
plantation song1844
jubilee1872
slave song1881
calypso1900
kaiso1912
leggo1940
road march1951
soca1977
1832 Amer. Sentinel (Philadelphia) 11 Sept. 3/1 (advt.) Mr. Rice will appear and sing Jim Crow.
c1832 T. D. Rice (title) Jim Crow. Celebrated comic song or ballad.
1835 Vade 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.
1837 New Yorker 16 Dec. 610/2 The impulse of despair must have tempted them to strike up ‘Jim Crow’.
1841 W. M. Thackeray in Britannia 15 May 315/4 The organ-man..struck up two beautiful melodies, viz., ‘Getting up Stairs’, and ‘Jim Crow’.
1926 N.Y. Times 26 Dec. vii. 8/2 From ‘Old Jim Crow’ to ‘Black Bottom’, the negro dances..are African in inspiration.
b. to jump Jim Crow: to execute the dance that was part of a theatrical (or street) performance of ‘Jim Crow’; to jump about. Also figurative, to change one's political principles, to desert one's party.
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society > authority > rule or government > politics > party politics > [verb (intransitive)] > desert one's party
to go over1648
rat1810
bolt1821
to jump Jim Crow1833
Tylerize1865
society > leisure > the arts > performance arts > variety, etc. > perform in variety [verb (intransitive)] > perform black minstrel act
to jump Jim Crow1833
1833 Sketches & Eccentricities D. Crockett 41 You nebber get to Heben till you jump Jim Crow.
1836 Louisville (Kentucky) Jrnl. 16 Sept. A Mr. Collier of Virginia has ‘jumped Jim Crow’.
1840 Log Cabin Song-bk. 38 Fo he's the man to jump Jim Crow, And prove that black is white.
1857 Observer 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.
1922 J. Galsworthy Windows i. 19 Not much balance about us. We just run about and jump Jim Crow.
c. The eponymous black character in the early 19th-cent. plantation song ‘Jim Crow’; T. D. Rice or any other performer of the Jim Crow act; in England, a street performer of this type of act (see sense 1b).
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society > leisure > the arts > performance arts > variety, etc. > performers in variety, etc. > [noun] > black minstrel > performing specific part
zip coon1833
Jim Crow1835
centreman1870
middleman1870
interlocutor1880
tambo1884
1835 Vade 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.
1851 H. Mayhew London Labour I. 4/1 The street-actors—as clowns, ‘Billy Barlows’, ‘Jim Crows’, and others.
1861 H. Mayhew London Labour (new ed.) 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.
1867 Atlantic 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 figurative sense of 1b.
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society > authority > rule or government > politics > party politics > [noun] > deserting one's party > one who
rat1755
bolter1812
ratter1819
Jim Crow1837
kicker1888
1837 New 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.
1840 J. Romilly Diary 13 Nov. in Cambridge Diary (1967) 204 The blackgds in the gallery hooted & called him Jim Crow.
e. Derogatory and offensive. A black person.
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the world > people > ethnicities > division of mankind by physical characteristics > black person > [noun]
AfriceOE
MoorOE
EthiopOE
blomana1225
Ethiopiana1325
blue mana1387
Moriana1387
black mana1398
blackamoor1525
black Morian1526
black boy1530
molen1538
Nigro1548
Nigrite1554
Negro1555
neger1568
nigger1577
blackfellow1598
Kaffir1607
black1614
thick-lipsa1616
Hubsheea1627
black African1633
blackface1704
sambo1704
Cuffee1713
Nigritian1738
fellow1753
Cuff1755
blacky1759
mungo1768
Quashie1774
darkie?1775
snowball1785
blue skin1788
Moriscan1794
sooterkin1821
nigc1832
tar-brush1835–40
Jim Crow1838
sooty1838
mokec1847
dinge1848
monkey1849
Siddi1849
dark1853
nigre1853
Negroid1860
kink1865
Sam1867
Rastus1882
schvartze1886
race man1896
possum1900
shine1908
jigaboo1909
smoke1913
golliwog1916
jazzbo1918
boogie1923
jig1924
melanoderm1924
spade1928
jit1931
Zulu1931
eight ball1932
Afro1942
nigra1944
spook1945
munt1948
Tom1956
boot1957
soul brother1957
nig-nog1959
member1962
pork chop1963
splib1964
blood1965
non-voter1966
moolinyan1967
Oreo1968
boogaloo1972
pongo1972
moolie1988
1838 ‘Uncle Sam’ in Bentley's Misc. 4 582 Don't be standing there like the wooden Jim Crow at the blacking maker's store.
1841 H. 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.
1948 Sat. Rev. (U.S.) 27 Mar. 36/1 Jim Crow works at the depot.
f. Racial discrimination, spec. against black people in the United States. More usually attributive, or as Jim Crowism (see Jim Crowism n. at Derivatives).
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society > society and the community > social attitudes > racial attitudes > [noun] > racism > segregation or discrimination > against black people
Jim Crowism1837
grandfather clause1899
Jim Crow1903
1903 Moline (Illinois) Daily Dispatch 20 Feb. 1/4 (heading) Fight Against Jim Crow. Negroes in Missouri organizing to retaliate, if possible, on the St. Louis World’s Fair.
1941 L. Hughes in Crisis June 185/1 Angelo Herndon..stood trial for his life in Atlanta on a charge of sedition because he spoke against Jim Crow and hunger.
1943 R. 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.
1946 J. 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.
1958 J. 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.
1969 N.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 you think of it as James Eagle?
1971 Black Scholar June 4/1 The historical literature..suggests that Jim Crow was directed more at the black male than the black female.
1973 A. Dundes Mother Wit 231 Since white southerners obviously spoke in dialect..this practice was little more than another insidious form of Jim Crow.
1973 Freedomways 13 30 One hundred years of frustration and battle have not resulted in victory over Jim Crow and racism.
2010 A. Valk & L. Brown Living with Jim Crow Introd. 8 As women describe Jim Crow, it operated effectively to keep most African American southerners aware of ‘their place’.
2. An implement for bending or straightening iron rails by the pressure of a screw.
Π
1875 in E. H. Knight Pract. Dict. Mech.
Compounds
C1. attributive, as (in sense 1a) Jim Crow song; (in sense 1b) jim-crow planing-machine (see quot. 1875); (in sense 1c) Jim Crow boots, Jim Crow dance, Jim Crow hat; (in sense 1e) Jim Crow line; (in sense 1f) Jim Crow bill, Jim Crow car, Jim Crow college, Jim Crow conditions, Jim Crow law, Jim Crow school, Jim Crow town.
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society > travel > rail travel > rolling stock > [noun] > railway wagon or carriage > carriage designed to carry passengers > other types of passenger carriage
caravan1821
private car1826
Jim Crow car1835
ladies' car1841
saloon car or carriage1842
palace car1844
ladies' carriage1847
parliamentary carriage1849
parlour car1859
composite carriage1868
Pullman1869
observation car1872
first1873
compo1878
bogie carriage1880
chair-car1880
club car1893
corridor carriage1893
tourist-car1895
birdcage1900
dog box1905
corridor coach1911
vista-dome1945
Stolypin1970
1835 Knickerbocker 5 47 Some jolly slaves..were waiting to take us into a ferry-boat, which they rowed, singing some Jim Crow song.
1842 Liberator (Boston) 21 Jan. 10/1 It is this spirit that compels the colored man to..ride in the ‘Jim-Crow car’.
1847 Chicago Jrnl. 7 Oct. We do not mean Jim Crow dances and poor songs worse sung.
1851 G. S. Cooper Jrnl. Expedition Overland 58 A man in a common shooting jacket, a Jim Crow hat, trowsers rather the worse for wear and a pair of moustaches.
1852 H. B. Stowe Uncle Tom's Cabin II. xx. 33 I thought she was rather a funny specimen in the Jim Crow line.
1861 H. A. Jacobs Incidents Life Slave Girl xxxv. 265 I was not put into a ‘Jim Crow car’ on our way to Rockaway.
1875 E. H. Knight Amer. Mech. Dict. II. 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’.
1887 C. B. George 40 Years 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.
1900 Morning 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.
1902 A. 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?
1903 Sun (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.
1904 Nation (N.Y.) 17 Mar. 202 The Jim Crow bills now before the Maryland Legislature.
1904 Richmond (Va.) Times-Dispatch 25 May 10 Violating the Jim Crow law by allowing negroes to ride in the same car with whites.
1926 A. Niles in W. C. Handy Blues 20 ‘Jim Crow’ songs with syncopated airs..were current long before the Civil War.
1931 W. Faulkner Sanctuary xix. 202 It was full too, the door between it and the jim crow car swinging open.
1949 L. Feather Inside Be-bop i. 3 Big band jazz had been played by Negro orchestras, frequently under Jim Crow conditions.
1957 W. 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.
1960 New Left Rev. Sept. 39/2 The Uncle Tom presidents of the captive Jim Crow colleges.
1971 Black World Mar. 75/1 Black people will continue to see themselves under jim crow conditions.
C2.
Jim Crow's nose n. = John Crow nose n. at John Crow n. Compounds.
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the world > plants > particular plants > plants perceived as weeds or harmful plants > poisonous or harmful plants > parasitic plants > [noun] > other
beech-drops1815
rafflesia1822
Scotchman hugging the (also a) Creole1828
Brugmansia1832
John Crow nose1844
pinedrops1848
nettle-blight1849
Scotch attorney1864
Jim Crow's nose1866
witchweed1881
devil's guts1889
1866 J. Lindley & T. Moore Treasury Bot. II. 638/1 Jim Crow's nose. A West Indian name for Phyllocoryne.
Derivatives
Jim Crow v. (transitive) to segregate persons ethnically; to discriminate against (a black or other non-white person).
Π
1923 Nation (N.Y.) 15 Aug. 155 But they are not ‘jim crowed’.
1955 L. Feather Encycl. Jazz i. 22 The Negro musician was Jim Crowed from the day he first became aware of music.
1969 C. 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.
1971 Rand 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.)
Jim Crowing n.
Π
1921 Rec. Home & Foreign Mission Wk. United Free Church Scotl. 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.
1942 C. Himes in Opportunity Sept. 272/2 Out of the bootings and the lynchings and the jim-crowings..will come our strength.
Jim Crowism n. the institution of segregation, the practice of ‘racial’ discrimination; (also) the act of deserting one's political party.
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society > authority > rule or government > politics > party politics > [noun] > deserting one's party
ratting1789
rattery1822
renegadism1823
Jim Crowism1837
bolting1884
society > society and the community > social attitudes > racial attitudes > [noun] > racism > segregation or discrimination > against black people
Jim Crowism1837
grandfather clause1899
Jim Crow1903
1837 N.-Y. Mirror 7 Oct. 118/1 Then, to counterbalance this good, you have entailed upon those British islands the curse of Jim Crowism.
1841 Times 21 June 5/6 His propensities to what they call ‘Jim Crowism’ in politics.
1925 Amer. Mercury Jan. 87/2 In his celebrated Atlanta speech he justified all the forms of Jim-Crowism.
1932 E. Wilson Devil take Hindmost iii. 17 The Negroes..are discriminated against by a general policy of Jim Crowism.
1948 Sat. 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.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1901; most recently modified version published online December 2020).
Jim Crown.2
/ˌdʒɪm ˈkrəʊ/, U.S. /ˌdʒɪm ˈkroʊ/ colloquial.
A roof-top spotter of enemy aircraft; also his look-out post (see also quot. 1943).
ΘΚΠ
the world > physical sensation > sight and vision > one who sees > [noun] > aircraft spotter
Jim Crow1940
1940 W. 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.
1941 Battle of Britain Aug.–Oct. 1940 (Min. 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.
1943 J. L. Hunt & A. G. 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.
1952 R. 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.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1976; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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