Dictomancy - Everyday Wordplay
- Jabe Stafford
- Apr 18, 2018
- 1 min read
Spread laughter and positive energy with wordplay! Dictomancy - Everyday Wordplay is a Wednesday blog series that features rare, bizarre, and absurd words and their meanings. Work one of these words into your day and spark some laughter and curiosity!
Rap-jacket - rap*jack*et n Also rap jack Also sp wrap jack(et) Sth, S Midl A contest of endurance in which people beat one another with switches; hence v phr play rap-jacket to administer a beating; v phr rap jack to beat with a stick. 1893 Shands MS Speech 52, Rap-jacket. . .A term used by all classes to mean a game of whipping, in which two boys are given switches, and whip each other with all of their might until one says “enough.” They both thus have their jackets thoroughly rapped, if they happen to have on those garments. Two boys who have been fighting at school are very frequently punished by the teacher’s making them play rap-jacket until he tells them to stop.
“Every play bloody knuckles as a kid? That's little league compared to rap-jacket.”
“The nuns made us play rap-jacket as kids.”
“The first rule of rap-jacket club is. . .”
Please share and comment on today’s Dictomancy and feel free to post your uses for the words in a positive, lighthearted way. Audience participation makes Everyday Wordplay hilarious!
Works Cited
Cassidy, Frederic G. Chief Editor. Dictionary Of American Regional English. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1985. Print