Jack's the Lad! Trivia Quiz

Answer: A small white ball.

The point of the game of Bowls, or Lawn Bowls, is to get your bowls closer to a target than your opponent can. The target takes the form of a white or cream-coloured ball, which one of the players bowls up the green to start an "end". Space forbids a complete explanation of the game, but feel free to google it.

Answer: A valet

There are three court cards in each suit of a modern deck of playing cards. Originally they were called the King, Queen and Knave, the latter being a valet or servant of the royal household. Later the term Jack was used as an alternative for Knave. With the modern design of cards with letters in the corners to make it easier to see what the cards were in a fanned hand, the use of Jack became universal, the J being easily distinguishable from K and Q.

Answer: A coat of armour

A jack-of-plate, commonly called a jack, was a coat of mail, consisting of small iron plates sewn into canvas. It was also a common name for a simple tough coat often worn over armour.

Answer: Jack-in-the-pulpit

Jack-in-the-pulpit is a name given to two similar plants, the Arum maculatum which is a European woodland plant, and Arisaema triphyllum which is from North America.
Both, with some imagination, resemble a dark figure emerging from or standing on a tall pale structure, a parson in his pulpit.

Answer: A newcomer or trainee

In Australia, the new boy or trainee in almost any kind of job is known as a jackaroo, although originally it referred a trainee on a cattle or sheep station.

Answer: An effigy of a man stuffed with straw

The easiest way to make the semblance of a man was to stuff clothes with straw. Scarecrows were often made like that. In Britain, a Guy Fawkes is often a straw man, or jackstraw, (usually called the guy) which is burned on the bonfire on November 5th, the anniversary of the gunpowder plot of 1605.

Answer: A female jackdaw

There seems to be no particular name for a female jackdaw. Certainly not a jacket(te) or even a jilldaw.

Answer: John

The actual reason why Jack got to be a nickname for John seems not to be known for sure. The most likely, although somewhat convoluted, dates from the Norman conquest. The French name Jean, sometimes them spelled Jen, would have the suffix -kin to make a more familiar form. Hence Jenkin, from which Jack emerged. Possibly.

Answer: A device for pulling off boots

The bootjack (or boot jack) is a hand-held device which is used to hold the heel of the boot still while the foot is pulled free. Bootjack is also a small town in Mariposa County, California. It might have got that name from the forked road looking like a boot jack, or more imaginatively from the use of a boot jack to remove the boots of hanged criminals.

Answer: A pet monkey

A jackanapes was a name given to a monkey or ape, usually in captivity, used for entertainment. Someone impertinent may also be called a jackanapes, and the name is sometimes given to a man who exhibits performing monkeys.

Answer: A light seen in marshy ground

Also called a "will o'the wisp", or ignis fatuus, probably due to the igniting of methane gas from decomposing vegetation. More commonly the name is used for a lantern carved out of a pumpkin at Halloween, but that wasn't one of my options.

Answer: Device for raising a heavy weight

Jacks are used in a number of ways in construction engineering, and may be hydraulic or mechanical by screws. Most people have had the misfortune to need to use one to lift their car when having to replace a tyre or wheel.

Answer: Public executioner

Jack Ketch was appointed public executioner in the reign of Charles II, and became famous for his inability, accidental or deliberate, to get the details right. He famously messed up the beheading of two aristocrats, Lord Russell in 1683 and the Duke of Monmouth in 1685, in both cases taking six or eight strokes to completely sever the head, despite allegedly being paid by the victim to make it quick and neat.

His clumsiness was famous, so that an execution by Jack Ketch drew large crowds. For centuries after his death the name Jack Ketch was used as a synonym for the public executioner, usually a hangman.

Answer: Jackfruit tree

There are about 60 types of tree in the genus Artocarpus, among which are the jackfruit, and the bread fruit made famous by the mutiny on HMS Bounty which had the job of transporting bread fruit trees from Tahiti to the West Indies.

Answer: A large carpenter's tool

A jack plane is a tool used by joiners to do coarse work, taking off unwanted wood before finer shaping is done. It can also be called a fore plane, because it is used before the more delicate work. Conversely though, the name may come from its being called a jack of all trades, as it can be used for both basic smoothing and jointing.