[See JACK sb.1, in various senses. Jack Straw was the name or nickname of one of the leaders in the Rising of the Commons in 1381.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Nun’s Pr. T., 574. Certes he Iakke Straw and his meynee Ne made neuere shoutes half so shille.
14[?]. Pol. Poems (Rolls), I. 230. Jak Strawe made yt stowte.
1568. Grafton, Chron., II. 342. But Fabian,… Polidore, and many Aucthours doe impute Iack Straw to be chiefe.]
1. A ‘man of straw’; a man of no substance, worth or consideration.
1596. Nashe, Saffron Walden, 126. Those worthlesse Whippets and Iack Strawes.
a. 1605. Polwart, Flyting w. Montgomerie, 155. Iacstro, bee better anes inginde, Or I sall flyte against my sell.
1692. Washington, trans. Milton’s Def. Pop., Pref. M.’s Wks. (1847), 342. Thou … an inconsiderable fellow and a jack-straw, and who dependest upon the good-will of thy masters for a poor stipend.
attrib. 1754. Richardson, Grandison (1812), VII. 63 (D.). I command you on your obedience to accept of this; I will not be a jackstraw father.
2. One of a set of straws, or strips of ivory, bone, wood, or the like, used in a game in which they are thrown on the table in a heap, and have to be picked up singly without disturbing the rest of the heap. Also, in pl., the game thus played.
1801. Mar. Edgeworth, Belinda, xix. ‘Mr. Percival,’ said Belinda, ‘condescending to look at a game of jack-straws!’ Ibid. (1810), Early Lessons, Harry & Lucy (1829), IV. 81. Playing a game at Jack-straws, or, as some call them spillikins.
1845. Mrs. Browning, in Lett. Mr. & Mrs. Browning (1899), I. 267. I … have no sort of presence of mind (not so much as one would use to play at Jack straws).
3. As a type of worthlessness: cf. straw.
1828. T. C. Croker, Fairy Leg. S. Irel. (new ed.), 434. The only thing about this place that’s worth one jack-straw.
1885. T. Healy in Leeds Mercury, 16 Dec., 8/1. The Protestants of the north do not care a jackstraw about England.
4. Local name for the Whitethroat, and for the Blackcap, from the construction of their nests.
1885. Swainson, Prov. Names Birds, 23. Whitethroat (Sylvia cinerea)…. It forms its nest of fine pieces of grass, bits of straw, feathers and wool, hence it is called … Winnell straw, or Jack straw (Salop). Ibid., 24. Blackcap (Sylvia atricapilla) … builds its nest of hay, roots, and hair, in a low bush or hedge, hence its names Jack straw (Somerset) [etc.].
5. The flower-spikes of the common plantain (Plantago lanceolata). local.
1863. Miss Plues, Rambles in Search of Wild Fl., 238. We used to call the spikes ‘Jack straws,’ and many a good game I have had with them fighting my fifty against my neighbour’s fifty.
