jackanapes
noun; derogatory or humorous

- A conceited or impudent person

- An impertinent, presumptuous person, especially a young man

- A mischievous or impudent child

American Heritage Dictionary, Collins English Dictionary, Merriam-Webster

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WORD ORIGIN

Jackanapes appears in the mid-15th century as Jack Napes, a mocking name for William de la Pole, Duke of Suffolk. His heraldic badge showed a chain and wooden weight of the kind used to restrain a tame ape.

Precisely how Jack Napes was formed remains uncertain. It may already have been a playful name for a performing monkey. Later spellings—Jack-a-Napes, Jack-an-ape and even Jack of Naples—were probably attempts to make an obscure expression seem more intelligible.

The word soon escaped from politics. It first denoted a tame ape, then someone thought to resemble one: showy, mischievous, vain or impudent. By the 16th century, it was a general insult for an irritating upstart. The final s belongs to the singular word, although speakers occasionally mistook it for a plural and created the form jackanape.

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WHEN WORDS LOSE THEIR EDGES

An apron once began with an n. Medieval English speakers called it a napron, borrowed from Old French. But “a napron” sounded exactly like “an apron”, and the boundary between the words quietly moved.

Linguists call this rebracketing: familiar sounds are divided in a new way. An English snake underwent the same treatment. A nadder became an adder. Movement can go in the other direction too. An ekename—literally an additional name—became “a nickname” when the n migrated across the boundary.

Something similar happened at the other end of jackanapes. Its final s looked so much like a plural ending that some speakers removed it and produced the singular jackanape. Yet jackanapes was already singular. Its standard plural is the gloriously cumbersome jackanapeses.

Such alterations aren’t careless corruptions imposed on a perfect language. They show the mind doing what it always does: searching for a recognisable pattern in an unclear signal. If enough people adopt the new analysis, the mistake stops being a mistake and enters the dictionary.

Words don’t arrive in our ears with spaces around them; the brain supplies those—and occasionally puts one in the wrong place.

Helga & Paul Smith

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SYNONYMS

coxcomb, impudent fellow, JACKANAPES, rascal, scamp, upstart, whippersnapper

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SMUGGLE OWAD into a conversation today, say something like:

“Many young boys started out as JACKANAPES and ultimately developed into respectable adults.”

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