Tear Up Jack

Welcome to A Way with Words.

Oh, hello. Hi there. This is Julie.

I’m calling from northern Michigan.

Years ago, when I was married to my first husband, my mother-in-law, who was a wonderfully high-spirited woman with family roots in Texas and New Mexico, would often say, like when encountering a mess or evidence of rambunctiousness, or just rambunctious behavior in general, that someone was tearing up Jake.

And so, like if our children had made a mess while playing, she explained that the room looked like someone was tearing up Jake in here, or if her grandkids were playing wildly, they were just out there tearing up Jake. Tearing up Jake. You know, the usual name is Jack instead of Jake. There are a lot of variations to turn up, Jack, tear up, Jack, kick up, Jack, cut up, Jack. And believe it or not, this goes back to the 1700s and possibly earlier.

Oh. There’s a card game called All Fours where turning over a jack, you know, the card just above a 10 and below a queen scores points. And this card game, which was sometimes played for money, was played all throughout North America and Europe and from the 1600s forward. And versions of it are still played. It’s very popular in Trinidad. It goes by other names and has variations in the U.S. 7-Up is a version of it.

And there’s an expression where people would say that somebody who was willing to play this game against the devil and turn up jack, meaning they didn’t care about the consequences of winning the game or doing well at the game even if they were playing the devil. So they would play the devil and turn up jack. That’s as I understand it.

Interesting.

Which would mean that you were scoring big and you were going to take everybody’s money at the table, you and your partner, because it’s a partner game. So it started with turn up jack because you’re literally turning over the card, which is the jack.

Yeah.

So over the years, that verb changed. And so turn up jack became tore up jack or tear up jack and raise up jack and cut up jack and kick up jack. And it just changed. And the general idea went from playing kind of risky game against the devil to just being rambunctious or being rowdy.

Yeah, yeah.

And so now when you hear it, usually in the American South, it’s just really about just being usually used for kids or small animals.

So just as you used it.

Right, right.

Yeah.

Making a mess. Just kind of not behaving well.

Very interesting.

Well, a little fact that you might find interesting is that game, All Fours, is where we get the word Jack for that card in a deck of cards, the one after the 10 and before the queen. It used to be called the Naves.

Oh, okay.

Yeah.

Okay, yeah. Yep, the Naves. So in the 1600s, that word Jack migrated from this game, All Fours, to just the rest of the deck and the rest of the card games in general.

So, Julie, your family is part of a great long tradition of tearing up Jake or Jack.

It certainly is. And that would quite aptly describe this youngest cat that I have that tears up Jake around the house all the time.

Yeah, they do, don’t they? They get the zoomies and go through the room.

Yes, they do. I will pass that information along on that family saying.

Excellent.

Well, take care, Julie. Thank you for chatting with us.

Thank you. Take care. Bye-bye.

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