Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (also jumper) a store clerk, a male shop assistant; thus counter-jumping, working in such a job; also as adj.

1828		Lytton Pelham II 107: The b— counter-skipper never had any watch! He only filched a twopenny-halfpenny gilt chain out of his master, Levi, the pawnbroker’s window.
1828		N.-Y. Flagellator 6 Sept. 30/3: There are a set if impudent counter-jumpers in this city, among the most notorous [...] is a saucy fellow who is employed as an understraper in a grog and broom store.
1830		Owl (N.Y.) 10 July 2/1: Mr. Owl, – A dapper counter jumper, in the Bowery, is requested to keep himself within decent bounds, and not insult the ears of sensible ladies with his insufferable nonsense.
1834		Ely’s Hawk and Buzzard (N.Y.) 6 Sept. 4/2: The counter-jumping sons of tape cannot, if they would sir, / Now with their master’s money ape the rich and gallant blood, sir.
1837		R. Nicholson Cockney Adventures 9 Dec. 48: Vere’s yer vife, yer nincompoop? Vere’s yer yard measure, yer counter-jumper?
1840		N.Y. Herald 15 Jan. 2/5: On Monday evening two [thieves] were operating at the store No. 301 Grand street, when one of the counter jumpers secured them both.
1843		N.Y. Sporting Whip 4 Feb. 3/2: A young gentleman, who belongs to the interesting fraternity of ‘Counter Skippers,’ and officiates at a shop in Canal-street [etc.].
1843		R.S. Surtees Handley Cross (1854) 310: I’d have [women] served by women i’ the shops, ’stead o’ those nasty dandified, counter-skippin’ Jackanapes’s.
1846		Bell’s Life in Sydney 14 Mar. 2/5: Wickham, a counter jumper at the ‘Bee Hive,’ in Pitt-street, was [...] charged by Eliza Bellisworth with a violent assault on her person.
1846		Censor (London) 18 Jan. 6/1: [C]ounter-jumpers in the wholesale rag trade.
1848		Sam Sly 30 Dec. 4/1: The linendraper’s lad, who jumps G—s’ counter in the Strand, / Swears Sam is quite a brick.
1849		Bell’s Life in Sydney 10 Feb. 2/6: A knight of the wand, alias a counter-skipper known to buyers of tapes and bobbins in Mr. Coleman's haberdashery department.
1853		Delhi Sketch Bk 1 Nov. 81/1: Narrators who secretly — him for a counterjumping longshore sojer.
1853		Life in Boston & N.Y. (Boston, MA) 8 Oct. n.p.: He is in the mercantile trade as a counter jumper.
1854		F. Smedley Harry Coverdale’s Courtship 47: I always thought he’d been a counter-jumper!
1858		Bell’s Life in Sydney 7 Aug. 3/2: There were twenty-seven ladies on exactly as many chairs, and just twice as many of the illigantest young counterskippers a-waiting upon them.
1861		N.E. Police Gaz. (Boston, MA) 5 Oct. 5/2: Eva and Gertrude [...] are to be kept by two counter jumpers. Poor fellows!
1863		T. Taylor Ticket-Of-Leave Man Act III: I’ll drive to the bank — cash this — settle with those counter-skippers, and rattle back in time to see you turned off.
1865		Sydney Morn. Herald 21 Feb. 2/3: They are [...] cockney clerks and counter-jumpers — callings of which no man who cannot get anything better to do has any reason to be ashamed.
1867		R. Broughton Cometh up as a Flower 14: Some counterjumper from Nantford, probably.
1872		Wkly Kansas Chief (Troy, KS) 26 Dec. 1/2: The oppressively civil counter-jumper [...] had grown into a deportment of most imposing pomposity.
1874		H. Mayhew London Characters 351: There are broken-down master-butchers [...] ‘craked-up’ costermongers and dilapidated counter-jumpers.
1877		Edinburgh Eve. News 20 Mar. 4/6: The tail-coat and evening dress common to all classes from the King to the counter-skipper.
1881		Omaha Dly Bee (NE) 12 Aug. 6/2: He saw a ‘counter-jumper’ as he was pleased to call him, roughly a catch a little girl [...] by the shoulder and solicit her attention.
1883		E.J. Milliken Childe Chappie’s Pilgrimage 64: Is the squat / Smart counter-jumper’s round a more ignoble lot?
1884		Ally Sloper’s Half Holiday 3 May 3/1: ‘Perhaps I mayn’t look it, but I’m a born duke! / Tell me what counter do you yourself jump?’.
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 17 Jan. 6/1: A gentleman who had bought ninepence worth of something from this counter-jumper, gave the coppers to the little girl who had just entered the shop, and then departed.
1887		Nat. Tribune (Wash., DC) 11 Aug. 5/4: Every counter-skipper and errand-boy wants a flower to to make him look fine for the theatre or music-hall.
1890		Bulletin (Sydney) 5 July 13/1: The parson can explain, but the counter-jumper can’t.
1890		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 1 Feb. 2/3: A Counter Jumper [...] [G]oing down to the clerk’s desk, he demanded an explanation. He grew very abusive, finally applying a very vulgar epithet to young Hamilton.
1896		Coburg Leader (Vic.) 4 Jan. 4/1: The Pest A. J. from W. Brunswick gave counter jumping best. High up in the world now.
1898		H. Macilwaine Dinkinbar 110: The deluded clerks, and counter-jumpers that have embarked in honey, fruit, or poultry in New Zealand.
1903		Sun. Times (Perth) 8 Mar. 1/1: The counter-jumper and his clyner.
1905		F. Hutchison Philosophy of Johnny the Gent 43: They show a line of gall an’ nerve that'd make Jesse James look like a counter jumper.
1907		B. Fisher A. Mutt in Blackbeard Compilation (1977) 3: Why, this is the softest graft I ever struck [...] No more counter-jumping for me.
1910		Bulletin (Sydney) 29 Sept. 36/2: The members of the counterjumping profession of Queensland will keep a kind thought for the departed Gaiters, Bishop Dawes.
1913		Sport (Adelaide) 22 Nov. 4/4: Four well-known counter jumpers [...] were seen holding a meeting in the street.
1919		Eve. World (NY) 13 Aug. n.p.: ‘Look what I wrote in the paper.’ [...] ‘You? [...] Gwan — you’re no writer, you’re a counter-leaper’.
1922		T.E. Spencer ‘Philosophical Coal Lumper’ in Budgeree Ballads 151: Maude was out to ’ave ’er little bit of fun [...] But a tart wot chucks a lumper / For a knock-kneed counter-jumper, / Well! She ain’t the sort of tart to fret abaht.
1932		(con. 1917–19) Dos Passos Nineteen Nineteen in USA (1966) 467: The crowd of clerks and counterjumpers along the sidewalks.
1943		J. Phelan Letters from the Big House 144: ’E says as ’is china bust a two-handful kite, Scotch jug, flutes the bogeys cause the jumper ses the moniker’s bent. Slung ’em the madam, an’ copped.
1957		D. Niland Call Me When the Cross Turns Over (1958) 41: Not a counter-jumper, not a clerk.
1967		‘Whisper All Aussie Dictionary’ in Kings Cross Whisper (Sydney) xxxiii 4/4: counter jumper: A shop assistant.
1969		L. Hadow Full Cycle 85: The counter-jumper [...] where Pa went to see the new Sam Weller cooking range was most obliging.
1983		R. Aven-Bray Ridgey-Didge Oz Jack Lang 23: Counter Jump Shop or bar assistant.

2. one who has ‘ideas above their station’ and who wishes, as it were, to ‘jump the counter’ to the customers’ side; thus counter-jumping, counter-skipping adj.

1846		Swell’s Night Guide 35: The Ludgate-hill counter-jumper, who has also inspected the linen department, says they are of very loose fabric, and won’t wash; be this as it may, there are to be met here some out-and-out molls – that can go in a stunner, and no flies.
1850		(con. 1843) Melville White-Jacket (1990) 240: You Emperor – you counter-jumping son of a gun – cock your weather eye up aloft here, and see your betters!
1853		R.S. Surtees Mr Sponge’s Sporting Tour 306: Oh, you sanctified, putrified [...] counter-skippin’ snob.
c.1867		‘New Intended Reform Bill’ in C. Hindley Curiosities of Street Lit. (1871) 86: Many respectable females have been much annoyed by second-hand dandies and counter-jumpers.
1876		M.E. Braddon Joshua Haggard 259: I don’t want my son and heir to keep company with counter jumpers .
1899		A. Binstead Gal’s Gossip 103: What is coming over our young men of the middle class — the sort that turn counter-jumpers in their giddy youth?
1915		E. Pound letter 6–12 Sept. in Read Letters to James Joyce (1968) 45: This deluge of work by suburban counter-jumpers on the one hand and gut-less Oxford graduates or flunktuates on the other ... bah!
1916		J. Lait ‘Omaha Slim’ in Beef, Iron and Wine (1917) 126: When it comes to parades them counter-leapers an’ silk-pajama youths come staggerin’ out o’ candy stores an’ fall in line.
1931		W.N. Burns One-Way Ride 21: And when murder became necessary Torrio pressed a buzzer, issued an order to his gunmen as to so many counter-jumping clerks, and left the details to them.
1960		R. Tullipan Follow the Sun 114: Arnie’s just a counter-jumper putting on side.
1999		Guardian G2 16 July 5: Journalism [...] a profession full of counter-jumpers.

3. attrib. use of sense 2.

1919

Van Loan ‘Mister Conley’ in Score by Innings (2004) 425: You and all your wife’s counterjumper relations!