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jack-knife (n.)[jack-knife 词源字典]: also jackknife, large pocket knife, 1711, probably American English, "perh[aps] associated with some sense of JACK sb.1, but compare jackleg knife" [OED]; see jack + knife (n.). Jackleg was a U.S. colloquial term of contempt from c. 1850. On another theory, so called because it originally was associated with sailors. As a kind of swimming dive, from 1922. As a type of tractor-trailer accident, 1966. Both from the notion of folding, as the knife does.[jack-knife etymology, jack-knife origin, 英语词源]
switchblade (n.): also switch-blade, type of folding pocket knife, 1932, from switch (n.) + blade. So called for the "switch" which is pressed to spring the knife open. Earlier a similar tool was known as an Arkansas toothpick (1837) and a clasp-knife (1755).