[See JACK sb.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.’
