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Comment by darkwater | Hacker News Reader

Not a native english speaker here: what does "jack" mean in this context?

There are 3 contexts: the name of a cheese similar to cheddar (but made with a washed curd), the name of a device that you use to lift your car, the surname of someone associated with it. In the second case, you can imagine pressing the cheese using the "jack".

“Jack” is also used to refer to the female end of a wire connector, e.g. audio jack.

If you include slang usages there's also jack off (jerk off), car got jacked (hijacked), he got jacked (muscular), doesn't know jack (jack shit), jack in (term from megaman battle network)

also a wooden assistant for removing one’s boots (aka boot jack)

also a playing card, or a small metallic object with tetrahedrally oriented spikes used in the game Jacks https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/jack#English

Jacks and jennies, male and female asses, jack leg, a bad tradesman, jacks a pointless kids game, jimmy jack, fiddle fart, ball the jack, go flat out

I'm under the impression 'Jacking in' was introduced by William Gibson in Neuromancer, 1984

I had to look it up, it refers to “A semisoft cheese with a buttery-ivory color and a mild flavor similar to American muenster. Named after its creator, David Jacks”

“David Jacks was a powerful Californian landowner, developer, and businessman. Born in Scotland, he emigrated to California during the 1849 Gold Rush, and soon acquired several thousand acres in and around Monterey, shaping the history of Monterey County in the first decades of American possession.“

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Jacks_(businessman)

>There are competing claims to the origin of the name "Monterey Jack" cheese, including one by Domingo Pedrazzi of Carmel Valley who argued that his use of a pressure jack gave the cheese its name.There are also claims that "Monterey Jack" cheese originated from the Victorine Ranch, south of Malpaso Creek

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