1856: union jack Jan 14, 2020

If you've ever heard the term 'Union Jack' for the flag of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, there's a reason for this. 'Union' just refers to the Act of Union (1707), but 'jack' comes from the navy—as many vexolocigal terms do—wherein a 'jack' is a banner that is placed at the front of a ship when it is at port. This is not to be confused with an ensign, which is a naval banner placed off the back of a back of a ship. In most cases, if one of those two is identical to the national flag, it is the jack which is a greater variant, visually, compared to the ensign, but in the case of the UK where the trend of the jack were set, this is not the case.

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