jacob

listen to the pronunciation of jacob
English - English
A male given name

Brett smiled at him. I've promised to dance this with Jacob, she laughed. You've a hell of a biblical name, Jake..

One of the sons of Isaac and Rebecca, and twin brother of Esau; father of the Israelites

And the boys grew: and Esau was a cunning hunter, a man of the field; and Jacob was a plain man, dwelling in tents.

A breed of multihorned sheep
given name, male
in the Old Testament of the Bible, the son of Isaac, and the brother of Esau. Jacob's 12 sons were the ancestors of the 12 tribes of Israel. Hebrew patriarch, son of Isaac and grandson of Abraham, and the traditional ancestor of the people of Israel. His story is told in the Book of Genesis. The younger twin brother of Esau, he used trickery to gain Isaac's blessing and Esau's birthright. On a journey to Canaan he wrestled all night with an angel, who blessed him and gave him the name Israel. Jacob had 13 children, 10 of whom founded tribes of Israel. His favorite son, Joseph, was sold into slavery in Egypt by his brothers, but the family was later reunited when a famine forced the brothers to go to Egypt to seek grain. Alfasi Isaac ben Jacob Astor John Jacob Berzelius Jöns Jacob Baron Burckhardt Jacob Christopher Camerarius Rudolph Jacob Epstein Sir Jacob Frank Jacob Jacob Leibowicz Jacob Gershvin Grimm Jacob Ludwig Carl and Wilhelm Carl Henle Friedrich Gustav Jacob Jacob ben Asher Jacob François Jordaens Jacob Lawrence Jacob Leisler Jacob Chaim Jacob Lipchitz Jacob Offenbach Perkins Jacob Pissarro Jacob Abraham Camille Riis Jacob August Ruisdael Jacob Isaakszoon van Schiff Jacob Henry Schleiden Mathias Jacob Arthur Jacob Arshawsky
{i} male first name; family name; (Biblical) third Old Testament patriarch, son of Isaac, father of the 12 tribes of Israel (also called Israel)
12; also called Israel
xxviii
(Old Testament) son of Isaac; brother of Esau; father of the twelve patriarchs of Israel; Jacob wrestled with God and forced God to bless him, so God gave Jacob the new name of Israel (meaning `one who has been strong against God')
A Hebrew patriarch (son of Isaac, and ancestor of the Jews), who in a vision saw a ladder reaching up to heaven (Gen
French biochemist who (with Jacques Monod) studied regulatory processes in cells (born in 1920)
Jacob Marley
A fictional man who is a character of A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens, and appears as a ghost to warn his former business partner Ebenezer Scrooge against being greedy and selfish
Jacob A Riis
born May 3, 1849, Ribe, Den. died May 26, 1914, Barre, Mass., U.S. U.S. journalist and social reformer. He immigrated to the U.S. at 21 and became a police reporter for the New York Tribune (1877-88) and the New York Evening Sun (1888-99). He publicized the deplorable living conditions in the slums of New York's Lower East Side, photographing the rooms and hallways of tenements. He compiled his findings in How the Other Half Lives (1890), a book that stirred the nation's conscience and spurred the state's first significant legislation to improve tenements
Jacob August Riis
born May 3, 1849, Ribe, Den. died May 26, 1914, Barre, Mass., U.S. U.S. journalist and social reformer. He immigrated to the U.S. at 21 and became a police reporter for the New York Tribune (1877-88) and the New York Evening Sun (1888-99). He publicized the deplorable living conditions in the slums of New York's Lower East Side, photographing the rooms and hallways of tenements. He compiled his findings in How the Other Half Lives (1890), a book that stirred the nation's conscience and spurred the state's first significant legislation to improve tenements
Jacob Burckhardt
born May 25, 1818, Basel, Switz. died Aug. 8, 1897, Basel Swiss historian of art and culture. After abandoning his study of theology, Burckhardt studied art history, then a new field, at the University of Berlin (1839-43). As he matured he became a cultural conservative, alienated from the contemporary world and preoccupied with reclaiming the past. From 1843 he taught primarily at the University of Basel; from 1886 until his retirement in 1893 he taught art history exclusively. He is famous for The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy (1860), which examines daily life in the Renaissance in terms of such phenomena as the development of individuality and the modern sense of humour; it became a model for cultural historians. He died while working on a four-volume survey of Greek civilization
Jacob Cats
known as Father Cats born Nov. 10, 1577, Brouwershaven, Zeeland, Spanish Netherlands died Sept. 12, 1660, Zorgvliet, near The Hague Dutch poet. A magistrate and high official, he was enormously popular as a writer of emblem books, consisting of woodcuts or engravings with verses possessing a moral. His Mirror of Old and New Times (1632) contains many quotations that have become household sayings in the Netherlands, and he used it to express the ethical concerns of Dutch Calvinists, especially about love and marriage
Jacob Christopher Burckhardt
born May 25, 1818, Basel, Switz. died Aug. 8, 1897, Basel Swiss historian of art and culture. After abandoning his study of theology, Burckhardt studied art history, then a new field, at the University of Berlin (1839-43). As he matured he became a cultural conservative, alienated from the contemporary world and preoccupied with reclaiming the past. From 1843 he taught primarily at the University of Basel; from 1886 until his retirement in 1893 he taught art history exclusively. He is famous for The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy (1860), which examines daily life in the Renaissance in terms of such phenomena as the development of individuality and the modern sense of humour; it became a model for cultural historians. He died while working on a four-volume survey of Greek civilization
Jacob Epstein
a British sculptor, especially of religious subjects (1880-1959)
Jacob Frank
orig. Jacob Leibowicz born 1726, Berezanka or Korolowka, Galicia, Pol. died Dec. 10, 1791, Offenbach, Hessen Jewish false messiah. He was an uneducated visionary who claimed to be the reincarnation of Shabbetai Tzevi. He proclaimed himself messiah in 1751 and founded the Frankist, or Zoharist, sect, based on the Sefer ha-zohar, which he sought to put in the place of the Torah. The sect rejected traditional Judaism, and their practices, including orgiastic rites, led the Jewish community to excommunicate them in 1756. Protected by Roman Catholic authorities, who hoped Frank would help in the conversion of the Jews, Frank and his followers were baptized in Poland. In 1760 he was imprisoned by the Inquisition, who had realized that Frank's followers regarded Frank, not Jesus, as the messiah. Freed in 1773 by invading Russians, he settled in Germany and lived as a baron until his death
Jacob Frenkel
former Governor of the Bank of Israel
Jacob H Schiff
born , Jan. 10, 1847, Frankfurt am Main died Sept. 25, 1920, New York, N.Y., U.S. German-born U.S. financier and philanthropist. He immigrated to the U.S. in 1865 and in 1875 joined the investment-banking firm of Kuhn, Loeb & Co. He succeeded his father-in-law as head of the firm in 1885 and became one of the leading railroad bankers in the U.S. He played a pivotal role in the reorganization of several transcontinental lines, notably the Union Pacific Railroad and the Northern Pacific Railway. During the Russo-Japanese War he sold Japanese bonds in the U.S., for which he was decorated by the emperor of Japan. His extensive philanthropies included large contributions to Barnard College and the Jewish Theological Seminary
Jacob Henry Schiff
born , Jan. 10, 1847, Frankfurt am Main died Sept. 25, 1920, New York, N.Y., U.S. German-born U.S. financier and philanthropist. He immigrated to the U.S. in 1865 and in 1875 joined the investment-banking firm of Kuhn, Loeb & Co. He succeeded his father-in-law as head of the firm in 1885 and became one of the leading railroad bankers in the U.S. He played a pivotal role in the reorganization of several transcontinental lines, notably the Union Pacific Railroad and the Northern Pacific Railway. During the Russo-Japanese War he sold Japanese bonds in the U.S., for which he was decorated by the emperor of Japan. His extensive philanthropies included large contributions to Barnard College and the Jewish Theological Seminary
Jacob Isaakszoon van Ruisdael
also spelled Ruysdael born 1628/29, Haarlem, Neth. buried March 14, 1682, Amsterdam Dutch landscape painter. He was probably trained by his father, a framemaker and artist. He was enrolled in the Haarlem painters' guild in 1648 and settled in Amsterdam 1656. He was a remarkably versatile artist, and some 700 paintings have been attributed to him. Whereas earlier Dutch artists used trees merely as decorative devices, Ruisdael made them the subject of his paintings and imbued them with forceful personalities through vigorous brushwork and strong colours in the Baroque style. The emotional force of his work is evident in the famous Jewish Cemetery ( 1660), where three tombstones crumble to ruin amid an ever-renewing nature. His late works include numerous panoramas of the flat Dutch countryside, in which a low, distant horizon is dominated by a vast, clouded sky. He is often considered the greatest Dutch landscape painter of all time
Jacob Jordaens
born May 19, 1593, Antwerp, Spanish Netherlands died Oct. 18, 1678, Antwerp Flemish painter active in Antwerp. He was admitted to the painters' guild in 1615 and by the 1620s had a flourishing studio with many students. After the death of Peter Paul Rubens, to whose Baroque style he was indebted, he became the leading painter in Flanders. His paintings, crowded with robust figures, are noted for strong contrasts of light and shade and an air of sensual vitality bordering on coarseness. He also produced religious paintings and portraits. His most important commissions were two enormous murals for the royal residence called the Huis ten Bosch, near The Hague. His later works tend to be mediocre and were frequently executed by assistants
Jacob Lawrence
born Sept. 7, 1917, Atlantic City, N.J., U.S. died June 9, 2000, Seattle, Wash. U.S. painter. He moved with his family at 13 to New York City's Harlem. Art classes sponsored by the Works Progress Administration in 1932 developed his talent. His works portray scenes of African American life and history with vivid, stylized realism. Gouache and tempera were Lawrence's characteristic media. His use of sombre browns and black for shadows and outlines in an otherwise vibrant palette lent his work a distinctive overtone. His best-known works are his series on historical and social themes, such as Life in Harlem (1942) and War (1947). His later works include a powerful series on the struggles of desegregation. From 1971 he taught at the University of Washington
Jacob Leisler
born 1640, Frankfurt am Main died May 16, 1691, New York, N.Y. German-born colonial insurrectionist. He immigrated to New Netherland (New York) in 1660 and became a wealthy merchant. Objecting to the British unification of New York and New England (1685-89), he led the revolt called Leisler's Rebellion, established himself as lieutenant governor of the province (1689-91), and called the first intercolonial congress (1690) to plan action against the French and Indians. When he reluctantly surrendered to a new British governor, he was charged with treason and hanged, along with his son-in-law
Jacob Ludwig Carl and Wilhelm Carl Grimm
known as the Brothers Grimm born Jan. 4, 1785, Hanau, Hesse-Kassel died Sept. 20, 1863, Berlin born Feb. 24, 1786, Hanau died Dec. 16, 1859, Berlin German folklorists and philologists. They spent most of their lives in literary research as librarians and professors at the Universities of Göttingen and Berlin. They are most famous for Kinder-und Hausmärchen (1812-15), known in English as Grimm's Fairy Tales, a collection of 200 tales taken mostly from oral sources, which helped establish the science of folklore. Together and separately, they also produced many other scholarly studies and editions. Wilhelm's chief solo work was The German Heroic Tale (1829); Jacob's German Mythology (1835) was a highly influential study of pre-Christian German faith and superstition. Jacob's extensive Deutsche Grammatik (1819-37), on the grammars of all Germanic languages, elaborates the important linguistic principle now known as Grimm's law. In the 1840s the brothers began work on the Deutsches Wörterbuch, a vast historical dictionary of the German language that required several generations to complete and remains the standard work of its kind
Jacob Perkins
born July 9, 1766, Newburyport, Mass., U.S. died July 30, 1849, London, Eng. U.S. inventor. He built a machine to cut and head nails in one operation 1790. He developed a method of engraving paper money that made counterfeiting difficult; lack of interest in the U.S. led him to set up a bank-note factory in England (1819). He experimented with high-pressure steam boilers, built a horizontal steam engine (1827), designed an improved paddle wheel (1829), and invented a means for the free circulation of water in boilers (1831) that led to the design of modern water-tube boilers
Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm
known as the Brothers Grimm born Jan. 4, 1785, Hanau, Hesse-Kassel died Sept. 20, 1863, Berlin born Feb. 24, 1786, Hanau died Dec. 16, 1859, Berlin German folklorists and philologists. They spent most of their lives in literary research as librarians and professors at the Universities of Göttingen and Berlin. They are most famous for Kinder-und Hausmärchen (1812-15), known in English as Grimm's Fairy Tales, a collection of 200 tales taken mostly from oral sources, which helped establish the science of folklore. Together and separately, they also produced many other scholarly studies and editions. Wilhelm's chief solo work was The German Heroic Tale (1829); Jacob's German Mythology (1835) was a highly influential study of pre-Christian German faith and superstition. Jacob's extensive Deutsche Grammatik (1819-37), on the grammars of all Germanic languages, elaborates the important linguistic principle now known as Grimm's law. In the 1840s the brothers began work on the Deutsches Wörterbuch, a vast historical dictionary of the German language that required several generations to complete and remains the standard work of its kind
Jacob ben Asher
born 1269?, Cologne? died 1340?, Toledo, Castile Jewish legal scholar. He emigrated to Spain with his family in 1303, and his father became chief rabbi in Toledo. Jacob is believed to have made his living as a moneylender. He divided Jewish law into categories by subject, producing a codification known as Tur, which became a popular Jewish theological work of the 15th century. The basis for many rabbinic decisions, it was considered standard until superseded by the work of Joseph ben Ephraim Karo in the 16th century
Jacob van Ruisdael
also spelled Ruysdael born 1628/29, Haarlem, Neth. buried March 14, 1682, Amsterdam Dutch landscape painter. He was probably trained by his father, a framemaker and artist. He was enrolled in the Haarlem painters' guild in 1648 and settled in Amsterdam 1656. He was a remarkably versatile artist, and some 700 paintings have been attributed to him. Whereas earlier Dutch artists used trees merely as decorative devices, Ruisdael made them the subject of his paintings and imbued them with forceful personalities through vigorous brushwork and strong colours in the Baroque style. The emotional force of his work is evident in the famous Jewish Cemetery ( 1660), where three tombstones crumble to ruin amid an ever-renewing nature. His late works include numerous panoramas of the flat Dutch countryside, in which a low, distant horizon is dominated by a vast, clouded sky. He is often considered the greatest Dutch landscape painter of all time
Jacob-Abraham- Camille Pissarro
born July 10, 1830, St. Thomas, Danish West Indies died Nov. 13, 1903, Paris, France West Indian-born French painter. The son of a prosperous Jewish merchant, he moved to Paris in 1855. His earliest canvases are broadly painted figure paintings and landscapes; these show the careful observation of nature that was to remain a characteristic of his art. In 1871 he took a house in Pontoise, in the countryside outside Paris. These surroundings formed the theme of his art for some 30 years. Pissarro's leading motifs during the 1870s and 1880s were houses, factories, trees, haystacks, fields, labouring peasants, and river scenes. In these works, forms do not dissolve but remain firm, and colours are strong; during the latter part of the 1870s his comma-like brushstrokes frequently recorded the sparkling scintillation of light. These works were admired by the Impressionist artists; Pissarro was the only Impressionist painter who participated in all eight of the group's exhibitions. Despite acute eye trouble, his later years were his most prolific
jacob's ladder
(nautical) a hanging ladder of ropes or chains supporting wooden or metal rungs or steps pinnate-leaved European perennial having bright blue or white flowers
jacob's rod
asphodel having erect smooth unbranched stem either flexuous or straight
Creutzfeld-Jacob Disease
{i} CJD, rare degenerative brain disease named after Hans G. Creutsfeldt and Alfons Jakob (disease is characterized by memory loss, jerky movements, stiff posture and seizures caused by a rapid loss of cerebral cells)
François Jacob
born June 17, 1920, Nancy, France French biologist. After receiving his doctorate, he went to work at the Pasteur Institute in Paris. Beginning in 1958, he worked with Jacques Monod studying the regulation of bacterial enzyme synthesis. They discovered regulator genes, so called because they control the activities of other genes. Jacob and Monod also proposed the existence of an RNA messenger, a partial copy of DNA that carries genetic information to other parts of the cell. The two men shared a 1965 Nobel Prize with André Lwoff
Friedrich Gustav Jacob Henle
born July 15?, 1809, Fürth, Bavaria died May 13, 1885, Göttingen, Ger. German pathologist and anatomist. He published the first descriptions of the composition and distribution of the surface tissue of anatomical structures (epithelium) and of fine eye and brain structures. Henle embraced Girolamo Fracastoro's unpopular microorganism theory. His General Anatomy (1841) was the first systematic histology treatise. His Handbook of Rational Pathology (2 vol., 1846-53) described diseased organs in relation to their normal functions, opening the era of modern pathology
Friedrich Gustav Jacob Henle
{i} (1809-1885) German pathologist who discovered a U-shaped loop in the kidney (called the loop of Henle)
House of Jacob
(nickname for) the Jews, the people of Israel
Isaac ben Jacob Alfasi
born 1013, near Fès, Mor. died 1103, Lucena, Spain Moroccan Jewish scholar. He spent most of his life in Fès, but in 1088 he was denounced to the government and was obliged to flee to Spain. He became head of the Jewish community in Lucena and established a noted Talmudic academy, provoking a rebirth of Talmudic study in Spain. His codification of the Talmud, Sefer ha-Halakhot ("Book of Laws"), deals with Halakhah (Hebrew law) and ranks with the works of Maimonides and Karo. It was crucial in establishing the primacy of the Babylonian Talmud over the Palestinian Talmud
John Jacob Astor
{i} (1763-1848) German-born United States financier and fur-trader
John Jacob Astor
orig. Johann Jakob Astor born July 17, 1763, Waldorf, Ger. died March 29, 1848, New York, N.Y., U.S. German-born U.S. fur magnate and financier. After emigrating from Germany at age17, he opened a fur-goods shop in New York 1786. By 1800 he was a leader in the fur trade, and he established the American Fur Co. He controlled the fur trade with China (1800-17) and in the Mississippi and Missouri valleys (in the 1820s) before selling his interests in 1834. His investment in New York City real estate became the foundation of the family fortune. At his death, Astor was the wealthiest person in the U.S.; he willed $400,000 to found what became the New York Public Library. His son, William B. Astor (1792-1875), greatly expanded the family real-estate holdings, building more than 700 stores and dwellings in the city
Jöns Jacob Baron Berzelius
born Aug. 20, 1779, near Linköping, Swed. died Aug. 7, 1848, Stockholm Swedish chemist. As a professor in Stockholm (1807-32) he achieved an immensely important series of innovations and discoveries. He is especially noted for his introduction of basic laboratory equipment that remains in use today; his determination of atomic weights; his creation of the modern system of chemical symbols; his theory of electrochemistry; his discovery of the elements cerium, selenium, and thorium and his isolation of silicon, zirconium, and titanium; his contribution to the classical techniques of analysis; and his investigations of isomerism and catalysis, both of which he named. He published more than 250 original research papers. He is regarded as one of the founders of modern chemistry
Mathias Jacob Schleiden
born April 5, 1804, Hamburg, Ger. died June 23, 1881, Frankfurt am Main German botanist. Trained as a lawyer, he soon left the profession to study natural science. He and Theodor Schwann developed the cell theory, which states that organisms are composed of cells or substances made by cells; they were thus the first to formulate what was then an informal belief as a principle of biology equal in importance to the atomic theory of chemistry. He also recognized the importance of the cell nucleus and sensed its connection with cell division. He was one of the first German biologists to accept Charles Darwin's theory of evolution
Rose of Jacob
(nickname for) the Jews, Israelites
Rudolph Jacob Camerarius
German Rudolph Camerer born Feb. 17, 1665, Tübingen, Ger. died Sept. 11, 1721, Tübingen German botanist. One of the first to perform experiments in heredity, he demonstrated sexuality in plants by identifying and defining the male and female reproductive parts of the plant and by describing their function in fertilization, showing that pollen is required for the process
Sir Jacob Epstein
born Nov. 10, 1880, New York, N.Y., U.S. died Aug. 21, 1959, London, Eng. U.S.-born British sculptor. He studied in Paris and settled in England in 1905. His 18 nude figures known as the Strand Statues (1907-08) provoked charges of indecency; his nude angel on the tomb of Oscar Wilde (1912) in Paris was also attacked. In 1913 he became affiliated with Vorticism and developed a style characterized by simple forms and calm surfaces carved from stone; his works often partly retained the shape of the original block, or sometimes they were modeled in plaster. He is best known for religious and allegorical figures carved in colossal blocks of stone and for bronze portrait busts of celebrities. Occasionally he produced monumental bronze groups, such as St. Michael and the Devil (1958) for Coventry Cathedral
new variant Creutzfeld-Jacob Disease
{i} CJD with shorter incubation, nvCJD
northern jacob's ladder
perennial erect herb with white flowers; circumboreal
jacob

    Hyphenation

    Ja·cob

    Turkish pronunciation

    ceykıb

    Synonyms

    israel

    Pronunciation

    /ˈʤākəb/ /ˈʤeɪkəb/

    Etymology

    [ 'jA-k&b ] (noun.) From Late Latin Iacobus, from Ancient Greek Ἰάκωβος, from Hebrew יעקב (ya'aqóbh; Modern: Yaakov, “Jacob”, literally “heel-grabber”), from עקב (‘aqev, “heel of the foot”). Cognate with James.

    Videos

    ... Oh no, is it team Edward or Jacob? ...
Favorites