Also 4 -yn, 6 -yne, 6–9 -ine. [a. F. Jacobin (orig. an adj., frère jacobin, 13th c. in Godef., Compl.), ad. med.L. Jacōbīnus, f. Jacōbus: see JACOB.]
A. sb. 1. A friar of the order of St. Dominic; a Dominican. Also attrib. or as adj.
Originally applied to the French members of the order, from the church of Saint Jacques (S. Jacobus) which was given to them, and near which they built their first convent (Littré).
a. 1325. Trental St. Gregory, 12, in Anglia, XIII. 303. To mynour ne to frere Austyn To caryne [read carme] ne to Jacobyn.
c. 1330. R. Brunne, Chron. (1810), 258. Frere Hugh of Malmcestre was a Jacobyn.
c. 1400. Rom. Rose, 7458. Thow woldest … have sworne … That he, that whilome was so gaie, And of the daunce Iolly Robin, Was tho become a Iacobin.
a. 1500. Freiris of Berwik, 29, in Dunbar’s Poems, 286. Twa of the Jacobyne freiris.
1681. Dryden, Span. Friar, II. ii. This jacobin, whom I have sent to, is her confessor.
1758. Jortin, Erasm., I. 135. They behold the Jacobins fighting for their Thomas.
1818. A. Ranken, Hist. France, VI. I. 233. It was a soldier in disguise and not a jacobin monk.
1833. Alison, Europe (1847), II. vi. 184. The club Breton … established its sittings in the library of the Convent of the Jacobins, in the Rue St. Honoré, which gave its name, since become imperishable, to the club.
2. A member of a French political club or society established in 1789, at Paris, in the old convent of the Jacobins (sense 1), to maintain and propagate the principles of extreme democracy and absolute equality.
1790. Burke, Fr. Rev., 158. They have, it seems, found out in the academies of the Palais Royale, and the Jacobins, that certain men had no right to the possessions which they held.
1794. J. Gifford, Louis XVI., 296. The new republican clubs, of which the Jacobins became the most noted.
1837. Carlyle, Fr. Rev., III. VII. iv. Gone are the Jacobins; into invisibility; in a storm of laughter and howls.
b. transf. A sympathizer with the principles of the Jacobins of the French Revolution; an extreme radical in politics or social organization. About 1800, a nickname for any political reformer.
1793. Burke, Corr. (1844), IV. 200. With the Jacobins I shall keep no terms.
1812. T. Amyot, Life Windham, in W.’s Speeches (1812), I. 29. Parties, which … were branded with the reproachful titles of ‘Alarmists’ and ‘Jacobins.’
1821–30. Ld. Cockburn, Mem., 81. Jacobins … soon became the common nickname … given, not only to those who had admired the dawn of the French liberation, but to those who were known to have any taste for any internal reform.
1888. Mrs. H. Ward, R. Elsmere, 542. ‘Why am I here?’ the little Jacobin said to herself fiercely as she waltzed.
fig. 1822. Byron, Juan, VI. xiii. Consign’d To those sad hungry jacobins the worms, Who on the very loftiest kings have din’d.
B. adj. a. Of or belonging to the Jacobins or Dominican friars. b. Pertaining to the Jacobins of the French Revolution; hence, ultra-democratic.
1795. Windham, Sp., 27 March. The cry of peace proceeded from the Jacobin party in this country.
1806. Fessenden, Democr., I. 68. [They] swore to have the pure reality, Essence of Jacobin equality.
1837. Carlyle, Fr. Rev., III. VII. iv. Billaud from the Jacobin tribune says, ‘The lion is not dead; he is only sleeping.’
a. 1886. J. Ker, Lect. Hist. Preach., viii. (1888), 139. They … gave name to the famous Jacobin party in the French Revolution, because their sittings were held in the Jacobine or Dominican monastery.
Hence Jacobinly adv.
1848. Craig, Jacobinly, after the manner of Jacobins.
