Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[eric0926]

Dear Teachers,

My friend ask me a question about jaywalker.

She said "why we call a man jaywaker to mean that he doesn't obey the

traffic rules?".

I can't find where does jaywalker come from.
Smile

Could you please answer for me?

Thank you in advance for your help!


Truly yours

eric0926

[Lorikeet]

I put "jaywalker" and "etymology" (where words come from) in Google. This is one result, from Wikipedia:

"According to historian Peter D. Norton, the earliest known use of the word jaywalker in print was in the Chicago Tribune in 1909. The term's dissemination was due in part to a deliberate effort by promoters of automobiles to redefine streets as places where pedestrians do not belong.[2] It is a compound word of the words jay and walk; in this context, jay is used in the obsolete slang sense, referring to a stupid or dull person, or a rube, i.e. someone from a rural area and not familiar with "city ways." At the time, vehicles and traffic signals were a new concept, gaining popularity in the larger cities, so this term would have been used to describe newcomers who were unfamiliar with these recent developments and by extension, to ridicule people who behaved like newcomers but should have known better."