# Jack Robinson

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jack-robinson/55336>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [February 21, 2001, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jack-robinson/55336 "2001-02-21T13:10:29Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Ces\_Lopez](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ba8739/32.png) [@Ces\_Lopez](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ces_Lopez)\
**Post date:** [February 21, 2001, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jack-robinson/55336/1 "2001-02-21T13:10:29Z")

</div>

Where did the term, “Faster than you can say Jack Robinson” come from?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\
**Post date:** [February 22, 2001, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jack-robinson/55336/2 "2001-02-22T03:18:22Z")

</div>

Dave Wilton’s site [wordorigins](http://www.wordorigins.org/wordorj.htm) has a nice write up about it, dating it to at least 1778 or so. But the meaning is still obscure.