The old-fashioned word "shoneen" (from Irish: "Seoinín", diminutive of "Seán", thus literally 'Little John', and apparently a reference to John Bull) was applied to those who emulated the homes, habits, lifestyle, pastimes, clothes, and zeitgeist of the Protestant Ascendancy. P. W. Joyce's "English As We Speak It in Ireland" defines it as "a gentleman in a small way: a would-be gentleman who puts on superior airs." A variant since c. 1840, "jackeen" ('Little Jack'), was used in the countryside in reference to Dubliners with British sympathies; it is a pun, substituting the nickname "Jack" for "John", as a reference to the Union Jack, the British flag. In the 20th century, "jackeen" took on the more generalized meaning of "a self-assertive worthless fellow".