Forms: α. 4–5 gete, 4–6 geet, 4–7 get, 5 geete, geyte, geitt, 5–6 gett, 6 gette, gete, geytt, (gate, giette), 6–7 geat(e. β. 4–6 ieet, 5 iet(e, 6–7 ieit, ieate, iet, 6–8 jeat, jett, 7 jette, 7– jet. [ME. a. OF. jaiet (12th c. in Hatz.-Darm.), jayet (F. jais):—L. gagātēs, a. Gr. γαγάτης: see GAGATE. In Du. git. The Eng. may partly represent the OF. fem. jayete, geiete, Walloon gayète (Godef.).]
A. sb. 1. A hard compact black form of ‘brown coal’ or lignite, capable of receiving a brilliant polish. It is used in making toys, buttons, and personal ornaments; and has the property of attracting light bodies when electrified by rubbing.
α. a. 1387. Sinon. Barthol. (Anecd. Oxon.), 22. Gagates, lapis est qui trahit paleas et cortices tritici, i. geet.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XVI. xlix. (Tollem. MS.). Get is calde Gagates, and is a boystous ston.
c. 1420. Pallad. on Husb., IV. 694. Take oxon yonge … Their lippes and their eyen blaak as gete.
1502. Arnolde, Chron. (1811), 191. By troy weyght is bought and solde golde syluer perlys gette.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, X. iii. 40. The blak terebynthine Growis by Orycia, and, as the geit dois schyne.
1599. Dallam, Trav. (Hakl. Soc.), 80. Neagers that weare as blacke as geate.
a. 1661. Fuller, Worthies (1840), III. 392. The virtues of geat are hitherto concealed.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, III. 251/2. Get, a stone,… some write Jeat.
β. c. 1386. Chaucer, Nun’s Pr. T., 41. His Coomb was redder than the fyn coral … His byle was blak and as the Ieet [v.rr. Iet, gete] it shoon.
1463. Bury Wills (Camden), 15. A peyre of smale bedys of jeet.
1657. Trapp, Comm. Esther i. 9. Having faculty attractive with the Jeat, and retentive with the Adamant.
1784. Cowper, Task, I. 122. The bramble, black as jet.
1838. G. P. R. James, Robber, i. The buttons were of polished jet.
1875. Ure’s Dict. Arts, III. 8. Jet occurs in the Upper Lias shale in the neighbourhood of Whitby in Yorkshire, in which locality this beautiful substance has been worked for many hundred years.
1894. Roscoe & Schorlemmer, Chem., I. 688. Jet is a black variety of brown coal, compact in texture, and taking a good polish. Hence it is largely used in jewellery.
† b. A piece of jet. Obs.
1598. B. Jonson, Ev. Man in Hum., III. iii. Your lustre too’ll … Draw courtship to you, as a iet doth strawes.
1607. Heywood, Fayre Mayde, Wks. 1874, II. 35. The drawing vertue of a sable jeat.
c. dial. Cannel-coal, bituminous shale.
1893. Northumbld. Gloss., Jeat, jead, jit, cannel coal, bituminous shale, jet.
† 2. Black marble. Obs.
a. 1440. Sir Degrev., 1461. Alle þe wallus of geete.
1591. Greene, Maiden’s Dr., 2. I saw a silent spring railed in with jeat.
c. 1620. T. Robinson, Mary Magd., 11. The battelments of smoothest Iett were made.
1648. J. Raymond, Il Mercurio Ital., 95. [A statue of] Seneca bleeding to death, of Jet.
3. The color of jet; a deep glossy black.
c. 1450. Songs & Carols (1856), 31. His comb is of red corel, his tayil is of get.
1637. Milton, Lycidas, 144. The pansy freaked with jet.
1711. Steele, Spect., No. 41, ¶ 3. Never Man was so enamoured … of … the bright Jett of her Hair.
1850. S. Dobell, Roman, i. Poet. Wks. (1875), I. 3. Closer yet, eyes of jet.
† 4. Old Cant. A lawyer. Autem jet, a clergyman. (App. referring to the black gown.)
1728. [De Foe], Street-Robberies Consider’d, 32. Jet, Lawyer.
1737. Bacchus & Venus (Cant. Dict.). Jet, a Lawyer. Autem Jet, a Parson.
1785. in Grose, Dict. Vulg. T.
b. attrib. or as adj. 1. Made or consisting of jet.
1444. Test. Ebor. (Surtees), II. 106. To ye vicar of Milton a pare of get bedds.
1596. Nashe, Saffron Walden, O iv. These ieat droppes which diuers weare at their eares instead of a iewell.
Mod. Price List. Jet goods. Cut jet buttons. Black elastic belts, jet, silver and oxydised clasps.
fig. 1649. Fuller, Just Man’s Funeral, 1. Jet memories (onely attracting straws and chaff unto them).
2. Of the color of jet, jet-black.
1716. Lady M. W. Montagu, Lett. to Lady Rich, 1 Dec. All the women have … snowy foreheads and bosoms, jet eyebrows.
1792. S. Rogers, Pleas. Mem., II. 330. As the coot her jet-wing loved to lave.
1834. H. Ainsworth, Rookwood, III. ii. (1878), 160. Hair, of the jettest dye.
b. spec. in names of certain animals and plants, as jet ant, a kind of ant (Formica fuliginosa); jet slug, a kind of slug; † jet-wood, ebony.
1607. Topsell, Four-f. Beasts, 193. The Ethyopians payed for a tribute vnto the king of Persia euery 3. yeare twenty of these [elephants’] teeth hung about with gold and Iet-wood.
1746. Miles, in Phil. Trans., XLIV. 356. Five Species of Ants have occurred to the Observation of our Author…. 2. The Jet Ant.
1747. Gould, Eng. Ants, 3. The Red and Jet Ants are of an equal Largeness. Ibid., 23. The Queen of the Jets I had never the Pleasure of seeing.
1882. Garden, 30 Dec., 579/1. The Jet Slug … about 21/2 inches long.
C. Comb., as jet-miner, -worker; jet-embroidered, jet-like adjs.; jet-coal, cannel-coal; jet-glass, black-colored glass made into cheap jewellery in imitation of jet; jet-rock, a bituminous shale containing jet; jet-seam (see quot. 1891).
1606. Sylvester, Du Bartas, II. iv. I. Tropheis, 1078. One-while set in a black Jet-like Chair.
1851. in Illustr. Lond. News, 5 Aug. (1854), 119. Jet-miner.
1875. Ure’s Dict. Arts, III. 8. The jet-miner … finding the jet spread out … follows it with great care. Ibid. The best jet is obtained from a lower bed of the upper lias formations. This bed … is known as jet rock. Ibid., 10. The jet workers complain of the great scarcity of designs in jet.
1897. Labour Commission Gloss., Jet Seam, a bed of Durham coal of a coarse cannel species, nearly approaching to a black shale. Jet coal burns with a bright flame, but loses little bulk in the fire.
1891. Daily News, 24 Feb., 5/8. The daintiest little collars are jet-embroidered upon black silk muslin.
