c.1850 cover of sheet music for Arthur Henry Brown’s Little Jack Frost Quadrilles. Image of a red-hooded, young, fairy-like man with wings skating on a pond. A wreath of holly is around his waist. The picture is partially framed with more holly.
21 December 2021
Jack Frost is a personification of cold weather or of winter more generally. The etymology is quite straightforward, the personal name Jack + frost. The name Jack, a familiar form of John, has been used as a name for a generic or hypothetical man since the fourteenth century. In addition to Jack Frost, we see it in such terms as Jack Tar for a sailor and Jack Robinson, and in jack-in-the-box and jack-o-lantern.
Jack Frost, in particular, dates to the early eighteenth century. We see it in a short book describing various Christmas-time amusements, titled Round About Our Coal-Fire, that was probably published in 1730:
This time of Year being Cold and Frosty generally speaking, or when Jack-Frost commonly takes us by the Nose, the Diversions are within Doors, either in Exercise or by the Fire-Side.
Sources:
Oxford English Dictionary, third edition, March 2018, s.v. Jack Frost, n.; modified September 2021, s.v. Jack, n.2.
Round About Our Coal-Fire: or, Christmas Entertainments. London: J. Roberts, 1730[?], 8. Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO).
Image credit: Unknown artist, c.1850. British Museum.