Jack Frost

(I’m reposting some older, seasonal articles on the feed’s off days. This article was first published on Wordorigins.org on 21 December 2021.)

Jack Frost is a personification of cold weather or of winter more generally. The etymology is quite straightforward, the personal name Jack + frost. The name Jack, a familiar form of John, has been used as a name for a generic or hypothetical man since the fourteenth century. In addition to Jack Frost, we see it in such terms as Jack Tar for a sailor and Jack Robinson, and in jack-in-the-box and jack-o-lantern.

Jack Frost, in particular, dates to the early eighteenth century. We see it in a short book describing various Christmas-time amusements, titled Round About Our Coal-Fire, that was probably published in 1730:

This time of Year being Cold and Frosty generally speaking, or when Jack-Frost commonly takes us by the Nose, the Diversions are within Doors, either in Exercise or by the Fire-Side.

Sources:

Oxford English Dictionary, third edition, March 2018, s.v. Jack Frost, n.; modified September 2021, s.v. Jack, n.2.

Round About Our Coal-Fire: or, Christmas Entertainments. London: J. Roberts, 1730[?], 8. Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO).

Image credit: Unknown artist, c.1850. British Museum.