Cousin Jack
Cousin Jack was a affectionate but sometimes patronizing nickname for a Cornishman, widely used during the 19th and early 20th centuries when Cornish miners emigrated in large numbers to work in mines across America, Australia, South Africa, and beyond.
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Cousin Jack was a affectionate but sometimes patronizing nickname for a Cornishman, widely used during the 19th and early 20th centuries when Cornish miners emigrated in large numbers to work in mines across America, Australia, South Africa, and beyond. The term spread wherever Cornish mining expertise traveled, and Cornish communities in those countries were often called Cousin Jack settlements. Today it's mainly a historical or heritage term, evoking the Cornish diaspora rather than functioning as active everyday slang.
The old mining camp in Nevada was settled almost entirely by Cousin Jacks who'd brought their hard-rock skills from Cornwall.
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(slang, dated) A Cornishman.
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Cornish diamonds, crystals of quartz ; (2) — hair, the rough wool of ancient Cornish sheep ; (3) — hug, a peculiar grip used by Cornish wrestlers ; (4) — Jack, the Cornish chough, Pyrrhocorax graculus ; (5) — organ, the bellows ; (6) —pheasant, the magpie, Pica rustica.
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