jack tar:
(also written: ‘jacktar’, ‘Jack-tar’; plural: ‘jack tars‘/Jack Tars‘)
(old or formal usage) a British sailor/seaman;
a sailor; gob,
a typical jack tar
e.g.
A jack tar is a British sailor: ‘Jack’ for a British person and ‘tar’ for a sailor.
Though the name ‘Jack Tar’ has now become old-fashioned, there are articles with this phrase in their titles that refer to the sailors, past and present.
According to some historians, jack tars were not that drunk, rowdy and womanising as they were portrayed in popular stories and plays; in fact, most of the jack tars were god-fearing, married men who never drank at all.
For an interesting article about a ‘Jack Tar’ (statue) in a museum, please click here, for an article with this phrase in the title about a sailor shows us how we come across this phrase in our daily browsing, please click here, and for an article that describes what a jack tar was, please click here .
