Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (US) a farmer, a rustic; thus country jakeish adj.

1746		Scots Mag. 4 Apr. 34/2: Repress your ardour for you country jake.
1856		J.F. Kelley Humors of Falconbridge 136: Well, you’re a pooty looking country jake, you are, to advertise for a dog, and don’t know Chiney terrier from a singed possum.
1874		A. Quinton Nobleman of ’89 155: All sorts of adventurers, that drew into their toils the inexperieneed young men, the country jake, the born gamester.
1884		(con. c.1840) ‘Mark Twain’ Huckleberry Finn (2001) 171: No, don’t you worry; these country jakes won’t ever think of that.
1888		Hants. Teleg. 15 Dec. 11/4: Are you winking at me because you think I’m a country Jake, sir?
1899		Ade Fables in Sl. (1902) 81: Brother Lyford had continued to be a rude and unlettered Country Jake.
1905		J.W. Carr ‘Words from Northwest Arkansas’ in DN III:i 68: Country jakes are sometimes called acorn-crackers.
1907		Broad Ax (Salt lake City, UT) 23 Feb. 3/4: Folks will be askin’, ‘Who’s that bright country Jake?’.
1915		M.G. Hayden ‘Terms Of Disparagement’ in DN IV:iii 199: jake, n. a greenhorn. ‘He’s no jake even though he did come from a Nebraska farm.’.
1922		Appleton Post-Crescent (WI) 29 Apr. 7/2: Flapper Dictionary brush ape – An Apple Knocker, a country Jake.
1934		O.O. McIntyre New York Day by Day 22 June [synd. col.] One word description of Eddie Peabody – country jakeish.
1946		W.L. Gresham Nightmare Alley (1947) 72: I could of handled them two jakes.
1957		H.B. Allen ‘Pejorative Terms for Midwest Farmers’ in AS XXXIII:4 265: [...] country jake.
1989		H. Rawson Dict. of Invective (1991) 192: As for country dwellers, in addition to hick, names and nicknames that have been used disaparagingly as generics include: [...] jake.
2005		J. Stahl I, Fatty 250: It was the only way to let the jakes in the audience know that they could laugh.
2024		J. Meades Empty Wigs (t/s) 213: [S]ex with mere men-proles, ‘reeking jakes with stinky fucksticks’, was perfunctory and injurious.

2. (orig. US black) a general term of address.

1939		Louis Jordan & the Tympany Five [song title] Jake, What A Shake.
1944		D. Burley Orig. Hbk of Harlem Jive 17: Jeez, Jake, that’s a low snake.

3. (US campus) an unsophisticated person, a misfit, a fool.

1989

Eble Campus Sl. Sept. 4: jake – cultural misfit, nerd: That new teacher is really a jake.

4. (US) a Jamaican.

1991

D. Simon Homicide (1993) 613: They invited the Jamaican in [...] No one saw the Jake go into the kitchen.