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Glite Dictionary
🚩 A quarantine flag 🐟 A yellow fish 🤒 Yellow fever
yellow jack

yellow jack

9.9
A yellow flag flown on a ship to show disease on board
  • noun
  • /ˈjɛloʊ dʒæk/
  • Archaic
translation icon : bandera amarilla
  • The ship raised a yellow jack as it approached the harbor, warning others of illness on board.

Examples

  • According to protocol, any vessel flying a yellow jack must remain isolated until cleared by authorities.

  • The sight of the yellow jack was enough to make nearby sailors nervous about a possible outbreak.

  • The ship raised a yellow jack to signal quarantine.

  • If you see a yellow jack, stay away from the vessel.

  • According to protocol, any vessel flying a yellow jack must remain isolated until cleared by authorities.

  • The ship raised a yellow jack as it approached the harbor, warning others of illness on board.

  • If you see a yellow jack, stay away from the vessel.

Surface Forms

yellow jack singular
yellow jacks plural

Morphology

yellow + jack

Although 'yellow' could suggest jaundice, the noun 'jack' (a fish or unrelated noun) gives no cue to a disease, so the compound's meaning as 'yellow fever' is historical and idiomatic rather than compositional. A B1 learner who knows the constituent words would not reliably infer 'a serious infectious disease' from them, and most languages use a literal equivalent of 'yellow fever' rather than this idiosyncratic English name.

Etymology

Yellow jack comes from the bright yellow flag sailors put on a ship to show there was disease on board. The small flag, called a jack, warned other ships to stay away, so the name came to mean 'quarantine' or sickness.