jarkman
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English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Noun
[edit]jarkman (plural jarkmen)
- (obsolete) A forger of counterfeit seals, licenses or other documents.
- 1849, “The Beggars of London”, in The New Monthly Magazine, volume 85:
- Allusion has been made to forged certificates. These were manufactured by a class of mendicants who had something in them of clerkly skill. They were called Jarkmen, Jark being the cant term for a seal.
- (obsolete) A writer of begging letters.
- Beggars' Bush (17th-century play), act 2 scene 1
- And these, what name or title e'er they bear, / Jarkman, or Patrico, Cranke, or Clapper-dudgeon, / Frater, or Abram-man; I speak to all / That stand in fair election for the title / Of king of beggars.
- Beggars' Bush (17th-century play), act 2 scene 1
Related terms
[edit]References
[edit]- 1949, John Dover Wilson (compiler), Life in Shakespeare's England. A Book of Elizabethan Prose, Cambridge at the University Press. 1st ed. 1911, 2nd ed. 1913, 8th reprint. In Glossary and Notes. Quoted in plural (jarkmen)