[a. OF. James (Gemmes, *Jaimes) = Sp. Jaime, Pr., Cat. Jaume, Jacme, It. Giacomo:—late L. *Ja·comus, from L. Ja·cobus (learned form Iacōbus), a. Gr. Ἰάκωβος, ad. Heb. yasăqōb Jacob, a frequent Jewish name at all times, and thus the name of two of Christ’s disciples (St. James the Greater and St. James the Less); whence a frequent Christian name.]
I. A Christian name of men: hence in various transferred senses. (See also JEAMES.)
1. a. A sovereign. slang. (Cf. JACOBUS.) b. James Royal, a Scottish silver coin of James VI., the Sword dollar.
1567. in Keith, Hist. Ch. & St. Scot., App. (1734), 150. That thair be cunyeit ane Penny of Silver callit the James Ryall,… of Weicht an Unce Troyis-weicht,… havand on the ane Syde ane Swerd with ane Crown upoun the same.
1858. A. Mayhew, Paved with Gold, III. xvii. 365. The firm … was in the habit of pricing its ‘half-James’ and ‘James’ (i.e. half and whole sovereigns) at 2s. 10d. and 7s.
1893. P. H. Emerson, Signor Lippo, xxi. He gives him the half-James, and told him never to bother him no more.
2. A burglar’s crow-bar; = JEMMY sb. 6.
1812. J. H. Vaux, Flash Dict., Jemmy or James, an iron-crow.
1885. Pall Mall Gaz., 29 May, 11/2. The uses and varieties of the James will be at once understood when it is explained that it is used as a lever of the third order.
1895. A. Morrison, Child of the Jago, 319. He wondered … what had become of the james and the gimlets.
3. A sheep’s head; = JEMMY sb. 7.
1827. Becher’s Every Nt. Bk. 38 (Farmer). Hear us, great James, thou poetry of mutton; Delicious profile of the beast that bleats.
1870. Lond. Figaro, 2 July (ibid.). Club your pence, and you may attain to the glories of Osmazome and James—that is, of baked sheep’s head.
II. St. James, either apostle of the name; esp. St. James the Greater, chosen as the Patron Saint of Spain, whose shrine at Compostella was a famous center of pilgrimage. St. James’s day, St. James’s tide (dial. James-mass), the 25th of July, dedicated to St. James the Greater.
a. 1225. Ancr. R., 192. For þi, seið sein Iame, ‘Omne gaudium [etc.].’
c. 1386. Chaucer, Shipman’s T., 355. I thanke yow by god and by seint Iame.
a. 1568. Ascham, Scholem., I. (Arb.), 36. Thies yong scholers be chosen commonlie, as yong apples be chosen by children, in a faire garden about S. Iames tyde.
1641. Churchw. Acc. St. Margaret’s, Westminster (Nichols, 1797), 47. Paid to the singing men of the Abbie towards their feast at St James’s tide.
1701. Lond. Gaz., No. 3718/4. The Fairs held at the City of Bristol at St. James-Tide … will not begin before the 25th of July.
1898. Westm. Gaz., 25 July, 10/1. There is a popular saw that ‘Whoever eats oysters on St. James’s Day will never want money,’ and this is due to an indistinct connexion with the saint of the scallop shell.
b. St. James’s wort (also dial. James-wort, James-weed), Ragwort, Senecio Jacobæa.
1578. Lyte, Dodoens, I. xlviii. 69. S. Iames Worte groweth almost euery where, alongst by wayes and waterish places, and … in the borders of fieldes.
1579. Langham, Gard. Health (1633), 577. Saint Iames wort, it hath a speciall vertue to heale wounds.
1597. Gerarde, Herbal, II. xxvi. § 1. 218. Saint Iames his woort or Ragwoort.
III. Also, a surname; hence, James’s Powder, a febrifuge very popular during the latter part of the 18th century and at the beginning of the 19th; prepared by Dr. Robert James (1703–76).
a. 1776. R. James, Dissert. Fevers (1778), 94. Suppose a patient or his friends, should insist upon trying James’s Powders, a little confederacy might easily blast all hopes.
1801. H. Swinburne, in Crts. Europe (1841), II. 304. They say his [Geo. III.’s] illness was brought on by his taking a most extraordinary dose of James’s powders of his own accord.
