What does the term "J-Walking" really mean? besides walking across the street with no crosswalk.?

Question

What does the term "J-Walking" really mean? besides walking across the street with no crosswalk.?

Answer 1

I used to think it ment "gangster Walkin" like walking in big groups and takin a long time and fightin in the street

Answer 2

lmao

Answer 3

A jaywalker is a person,ignorant of the rules,who crosses the paths of others without using safety precautions

Answer 4

"The complete Oxford English Dictionary traces the word jaywalker back to 1917 and labels it 'originally US'. There is a cross-reference to the word jay, which has a number of slang senses. The relevant one is 'a stupid or dull person, a simpleton. Also (as adjective) dull, unsophisticated; inferior, poor'. This is labelled 'US colloquial', and there is evidence of use from 1900. So persons who stupidly ignored traffic regulations were given (in Boston, it seems) this compact name."

Answer 5

The term jaywalking actually covers a multitude of pedestrian infractions, mostly involving a failure to cross city streets at designated intersections or crosswalks.

Jaywalking can be considered a misdemeanor if a police officer considers the pedestrian's actions to be a deliberate violation of an existing ordinance.

Otherwise, the officer may choose to issue a stern warning against future infractions. The fine for a jaywalking ticket can be surprisingly substantial, similar to misdemeanor moving violations for drivers.

The origin of the term jaywalking is said to coincide with the arrival of the "horseless carriage" around the turn of the 20th century.

The word "jay" had several different connotations at the time, but the one which seemed to describe the dangerous practice best implied an unsophisticated rube.

Crossing the street haphazardly or ignoring other pedestrian rules in a large city would be considered typical behavior for an uneducated "jay."

Therefore, many early ordinances adopted this slang term to describe the violation itself.

Even though the derisive slang term fell out of favor decades ago, the ill-advised practice of crossing a street between intersections is still called jaywalking

Answer 6

The first person gave much too long of an answer. The real answer has to do with Jay birds.

When a pedestrian crosses a street when he does not have the righ to go, he is refer to as a jay bird because jay birds have a tendency to mindlessly cross the street with no regard to traffic.

I have no source, but this is what I was taught.