Jacobin

Meanings

1. Synonym of Dominican, a member of the Dominican Order, particularly its French chapter.
2. A member of the Jacobin Club, a radical political club prominent during the French Revolution.
3. A sympathizer or supposed sympathizer with the French political club or its aims of democracy and social equality.
4. A leftist radical in other contexts.
5. Synonym of Jacobite, a member of the Syriac Orthodox Church.
6. Alternative letter-case form of jacobin, various birds.

1. Of or related to the Jacobin Club in France.
2. Of or related to the radical left in other contexts.
3. Synonym of Dominican, of or related to the Dominican Order, particularly its French chapter.
4. Synonym of Jacobite, of or related to the Syriac Orthodox Church.

1. Alternative letter-case form of Jacobin.
2. A domestic pigeon (Columba livia domestica) with reversed feathers on its neck.
3. Any hummingbird of the genus Florisuga.
4. A kind of thick French soup with cheese.

Etymology

From Middle English Jacobin, from Old French jacobin, from Latin Jācōbīnus, from Latin Jācōbus (“James, Jacob, etc.”) + -īnus (“-ine: forming adjectives”), from Ancient Greek Ἰάκωβος (Iákōbos), from Biblical Hebrew יַעֲקֹב (Ya'akóv), q.v. In reference to the Dominican Order, from the proximity of their 1218 chapel and chapter house in Paris to the city's Porte Saint-Jacques, whose road formed an extension of the Way of St. James running to Santiago de Compostela, Spain. In reference to the Jacobin Club, from its 1789 founding at the former Dominican convent. In reference to the Syrian church, from Jacob bar Addai, bishop of Edessa during the mid-6th century.