early 14c., in reference to an order of Dominican friars, from Old French Jacobin (13c.) "Dominican friar" (also, in the Middle East, "a Copt"); so called because the order built its first convent near the church of Saint-Jacques in Paris (the masc. proper name Jacques is from Late Latin Iacobus; see Jacob). The Revolutionary extremists made their club headquarters there October 1789 and supported Robespierre during the Terror. It was suppressed in November 1794. In English, used generically of radicals and allegedly radical reformers since 1793. Related: Jacobinism.