The Facts on File Dictionary of Allusions - Green Valley High School

ååååå J å
jabberwocky Nonsensical gibberish. <strong>The</strong> word
was coined by Lewis Carroll in a mock medieval
poem of the same name in Through the Looking-
Glass (1872). According to Carroll, the Jabberwock
is a monster with “jaws that bite” and “claws that
catch.” He derived the name through the combination
of “jabber” (meaning “talk meaninglessly”)
and the Anglo- Saxon wocer (meaning “offspring”).
His nonsensical argument belonged to the school of jabberwocky
enshrined by Lewis Carroll.
j’accuse (zhakyooz) A serious accusation of
wrongful or immoral behavior. <strong>The</strong> reference is to
a letter by the French novelist Émile Zola that was
published in the French newspaper L’Aurore on
January 13, 1898 under the heading “J’accuse”
(meaning “I accuse”). In it, Zola accused the
French government of treating the French army
captain Alfred Dreyfus (who was of Jewish origin)
with inhuman indifference, resulting in his conviction
on charges of selling military secrets to Germany
and his transportation to the notorious
dev il’s island prison colony. Zola’s efforts to
expose the government’s attempts to cover up the
scandal eventually led to Dreyfus’s release, though
not until after the novelist himself had been prosecuted
and obliged to fl ee France for a time. <strong>The</strong>
term is now used of any stalwart campaign against
corrupt or illegal conduct. It was brave of the media
to stand up to Nixon and yell “J’accuse!”
Jack Ketch <strong>The</strong> public hangman. <strong>The</strong> real Jack
Ketch (d. 1686) was appointed executioner in
London around 1663 and dispatched many notable
victims, including Lord William Russell (in 1683)
and the duke of Monmouth (in 1685). He later
became the subject of many ballads and a character
in punch and judy puppet shows. “At one
time so many people from the area were hanged at
Newgate it had been nicknamed Jack Ketch’s Warren,
and according to Paddy it had been known for
as many as forty constables to march down with
cutlasses to control disturbances” (Pamela Pope,
<strong>The</strong> Rich Pass By, 1990).
Jackson Pollock (jaksbn polbk) Of or relating to
the abstract paintings of U.S. artist Jackson Pollock
(1912–56). Pollock was well known for his
unconventional painting methods, the most famous
of which involved dribbling paint onto a canvas
laid fl at on the ground. Her paintings for this new
exhibition are very Jackson Pollock, all splashy lines and
big blobs of color.
Jack the Giant- Killer A person who readily sets
himself or herself against even the most formidable
opposition. Folklore identifi es Jack the
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