Date:  Thu, 16 Feb 1995 11:19:38 CST

From:  Mike Picone <MPICONE[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]UA1VM.UA.EDU>

Subject: Re: jakes



The OED (1989) says "origin uncertain; it has been suggested to be from

the proper name _Jacques_, _Jakes_; or from _Jakke_, `Jack', quasi

_Jakkes_, `Jack's'" and gives attestations going back to the 1530s,

sometimes with variant spellings, _iaques_, _iakes_.





I don't know of any present use in formal language or slang of Fr. _Jacques_

that corresponds to `privy', though it can be used to refer to the male

sex organ. Historically, the word could be used to refer to a peasant and

may have had other uses I am unaware of. But two things might be viewed as

circumstantial evidence for a French origin. References to similar entities

in France are generally in the plural: les cabinets, les lieux d'aisance,

les toilettes. There is a history of trans-Channel borrowings in this

domain, apparently to make such references appear somehow more elegant:

thus Eng. _toilet_ from French, and Fr. _W.C._ OveseE (water closet) from

English.



Note, however, that in Louisiana it is singular _le cabinet_.



Mike Picone

University of Alabama

MPICONE[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]UA1VM.UA.EDU