ˈjakəbə̇n sometimes ˈjāk- or jəˈkōb- noun
( -s )
Usage: usually capitalized
Etymology: Middle English, from Middle French, from Medieval Latin Jacobinus, from Late Latin Jacobus St. James, + Latin -inus -ine; from the location of the first Dominican convent in the street of St. James (Rue St.-Jacques) in Paris
1. : dominican
2.
[French, from Jacobin Dominican; from the group's having been founded in the Dominican convent in Paris in 1789]
a. : a member of an extremist political group advocating equalitarian democracy and famous for its terrorist policies during the French Revolution of 1789
b. : a political extremist or radical ; especially : one that advocates the attainment of equalitarian democracy usually by revolutionary or violent methods
the children of the Boston Federalists grew up under the impression that Democrats, or Jacobins, as they were called, were repulsive creatures — C.G.Bowers
3.
a. : a breed of fancy pigeons whose neck feathers are reversed and so form a fluffy hood
b.
[French, from Jacobin, Dominican; from the resemblance of the head and neck of such birds to the hood of a Dominican]
: a tropical American hummingbird of the genus Florisuga (especially F. mellivora )