Jack, the chap-man. Not cheap, meaning low-priced, but cheap meaning merchant, as in “chapman,” “Cheap-side,” etc. Jack is a term applied to inferior persons, etc. (Saxon, cepa, a merchant; ceapian, to buy; ceapmann, a tradesman.) (See Jack.)
· ·
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.
· 
· 