jabberwocky

• bandersnatch

[JAB-er-wah-kee]
meaningless speech or writing
Example:
"The salesman started spewing computer jabberwocky at me like an auctioneer. I understood about every sixth word he uttered." (Larry D. Clifton, "The Tampa Tribune", September 6, 1998)
Etymology:
In a poem titled "Jabberwocky" in the book "Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There" (1872), Lewis Carroll warned his readers about a frightful beast:
"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!"
This nonsensical poem caught the public's fancy, and by 1902 "jabberwocky" was being used as a generic term for meaningless speech or writing. The word "bandersnatch" has also seen some use as a general noun, with the meaning "a wildly grotesque or bizarre individual". It's a much rarer word than "jabberwocky", though.


jackalope

• raurackl
• wolpertinger
• rasselbock
• dilldapp

Meaning, synonyms, and history:
1. The jackalope, a cottontail or domestic rabbit or jackrabbit mounted with the horns of a young antelope, deer or goat is commonly believed to have originated in the folklore of the American West. "The New York Times" attributes the origin of the American Jackalope to Douglas Herrick, a native of Douglas, Wyoming, in 1939. However, Dan Simberloff (1987) notes that local legend has it that the original jackalope was displayed in 1829 by the owner of a Douglas hotel, LeRoy Ball, although this seems about 50 years early for a hotel to be built in Douglas, which was incorporated in 1887. Kreider and Bartlett (1981) also note: "Horned jackrabbits and cottontail rabbits were known to the pioneers of the western plains and were first described in popular hunting and fishing magazines in the early 1900's." Ernest Thompson Seton published in 1909 his "Life-Histories of Northern Game Animals", in which he included a drawing of the head of what was certainly a mounted jackalope, shown to him by a Chicago gentleman. Seton also reported seeing diseased cottontail rabbits in the American West that had growths resembling horns...
Some modern huntsmen's tales about European horned hares also exist: the Austrian raurackl, the Bavarian wolpertinger (a composite animal with horns and parts from hares and other animals), the Thuringian rasselbock, and the dilldapp in Switzerland; all from the 19th or 20th centuries).
("Jackalope fans, take note: Your mythical beast really does exist!": http://ww2.lafayette.edu~hollidac/jackalope.html)
Where the word comes from is open to doubt, and even controversy, but in a report of the death of Douglas Herrick it was stated as fact that he was its true inventor. The story goes that he and his brothers, who ran a taxidermy shop in Douglas, Wyoming, mounted the horns of a pronghorn antelope on to the body of a jackrabbit sometime in the 1930s and exhibited it straight-faced, naming it by an equally ingenious conflation of the constituent animals' names. In the decades since, the firm has made several thousands of them, so much so that Douglas has become the jackalope capital of the USA. In 1965, the state of Wyoming trademarked the name and you can even buy hunting licenses, good between midnight and 2am on 31 June any year.
The odd thing is that, as the result of a virus, jackrabbits can sometimes grow what really do look like horns, sometimes up to five inches in length, and this may be the source of several ancient stories about horned rabbits on which the invented legend may rest. Truth really can sometimes be stranger than fiction.
("World Wide Words": http://www.worldwidewords.org/weirdwords/ww-jac2.htm)
2. A bully who has no respect for other people and who is very mean;
3. An adolescent who is always jumping about and behaving with no rhyme or reason. Mouth is moving, but brain is not engaged. Sometimes he exhibits uncontrollable or restless hand and foot syndrome.
Example:
The teacher was trying to maintain a disciplined and learning class atmosphere. It became necessary to move all the jackalopes to the front row, where she could keep a careful eye on them.
4. (v.) What Jack was trying to do with Jill when they were going up the hill to get married without their parents' permission.
(UrbanDictionary.com:
http://www.urbandictionary.com/browse.php?character=J&skip=198)




jackanapes

• whippersnapper
• lightweight

Also: Jackanapes
One who is like an ape in tricks, airs, or behaviour; a ridiculous upstart; a pert, impertinent fellow, who assumes ridiculous airs; a coxcom; an impudent person, whippersnapper; mischievous child; someone who is unimportant but cheeky and presumptuous.
Example:
A Scottish lord told King James that Andrewes did play with his text as a jackanapes does, who takes up a thing and tosses and plays with it and then takes up another and plays with it. (Symonds, Richard. "Alternative saints". - Basingstoke: Macmillan Publishers Ltd, 1988) Synonyms: whippersnapper, lightweight.
History:
C.1449, "a monkey," also "an impertinent, conceited fellow;" apparently from Jack of Naples, but whether this is some specific personification or folk etymology of "jack" (n.) + "ape" is unknown.
The most widespread story connects the origins of this word with William de la Pole, Duke of Suffolk. He was steward of the Royal Household under Henry VI, but was accused of treason and banished in 1450, only to be murdered at sea off Dover. His emblem was an ape's clog and chain (a clog here being not a type of shoe but a heavy block of wood to stop the animal escaping). This led to his being described in a scurrilous poem the year before his death as "ape-clog" and posthumously as "Jack Napes". Though "Jack Napes" might therefore seem to derive from the ill-fated duke, something that has often been assumed, the experts are sure that it came from another source and was applied to the Duke because of his odd emblem. The real origin probably lay in a playful name for a tame ape, in which the second part was a case of metanalysis (in which "an ape" has been turned into "a nape"), with an "s" on the end to make it match other surnames of the period, like Jacques or Hobbes. It went through various forms until it settled down to its modern spelling. The idea behind it moved from a pet name for an ape to a man acting in some way like an ape. The OED gives the sense in one of its wonderful definitions as "One who is like an ape in tricks, airs, or behaviour; a ridiculous upstart; a pert, impertinent fellow, who assumes ridiculous airs; a coxcomb."



jackass
1. a foolish or stupid person; a blockhead
Example:
"You've acted like an irrational jackass and it's time you stopped" (Margaret Truman)
2. a male donkey
Example:
One technique is to excite a jackass with a jenny donkey and then au moment critique , substitute a mare. ("New Scientist", London: IPC Magazines Ltd, 1991)
3. a male ass
Etymology:
18th century: from "jack" (male) + "ass"

jailbait

• jail-bait
• jail
• bait

1. girl or boy below the legal age of consent;
2. (slang) attractive young girl, female minor with whom sexual relations could result in prison sentence;
3. anybody who is at least five years younger than you are.
Etymology:
The word is from old taxi drivers who date young high school girls and when high school guys go out with junior high school students.
4. Worms dug up by tunnelling prisoners and later, after their escape, used for fishing.

jamoke

• Jamocha

1. Coffee.
Example:
'There ain't nothing stronger in the booze line than pure alky mixed with jamocha.' ("Gay-Cat", 1922)
2. Stupid, objectionable or inconsequential fellow.
3. Dupe; sucker.
4. Guy; man.
Etymology:
Jamoke is usually said to come from Java plus Mocha. When it first appeared, at the end of the nineteenth century, it literally meant coffee, and was sometimes written as Jamocha, which makes the origin a bit clearer (despite the coffee associations, linguists would say that the word is a clipped compound, not a blend ...).
Professor Jonathan Lighter, in the "Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang", suggests that jamoke was probably a nautical term to start with. He points out, too, that the evidence suggests it was a World War I soldier's nickname, perhaps for somebody whose colour or intellect resembled a cup of coffee. Sometime before 1946 it took on a sense of 'a stupid, objectionable or inconsequential fellow', as Mr Lighter puts it. This sense has further evolved in some quarters into one for a dupe or sucker, and was a 1960s slang term for the p*nis. It has also been used more neutrally for guy or man.
It wouldn't be altogether surprising to hear that jamoke has evolved further and been abbreviated to moke and then mook. It's also likely that the two terms have influenced each other. But certainly they started out distinct.


jawbreaker

• jaw-breaker
• jaw
• breaker

1. (slang) word that is difficult to pronounce.
Example: Her name is a real jawbreaker.
2. hard candy

jazz

• jaser
• jazzbo
• chissom

1. a) musical form, often improvisational, developed by African-Americans and influenced by both European harmonic structure and African rhythmic complexity. It also is often characterized by its use of blues, ragtime and speech intonations; b) complex and rhythmic style of music which originated in New Orleans in the early 1900's; c) kind of dance music popular in the 1920's.
2. (Slang) Idle talk, insincere words, empty rhetoric or insincere or exaggerated talk.
Example:
Don't give me any of that jazz.
Synonyms:
wind, idle words, nothingness
3. Of or pertaining to jazz music, having the characteristics of jazz music, having a jazz rhythm.
4. Play jazz music; dance to jazz music.
5. (Slang) Liven up, make lively or energetic.
6. (Slang) Accelerate, speed up.
7. (Slang) Have sexual intercourse with.
Example:
This student jazzes with everyone in her dorm.
Synonyms:
love, make out , make love, sleep with, get laid, have sex, know, do it, be intimate, have intercourse, have it away, have it off, screw, eff, hump, lie with, bed, have a go at it, bang, get it on, bonk
Etymology, more examples:
Where did the name come from? People have pointed to Jasper, the name of a dancing slave on a plantation near New Orleans in about 1825 whose nickname was "Jazz"; to a Mississippi drummer named "Chas" Washington in the late nineteenth century or to "Chas", the nickname of Charles Alexander (of "Alexander's Ragtime Band") about 1910; to a Chicago musician named "Jasbo" Brown; to a band conductor in New Orleans about 1904 called Mr Razz; to the French "chass?", a gliding dancing step that had already been turned into the archetypically American verb "sashay" as long ago as the 1830s; to the French "jaser", useless talk for the pleasure of hearing one's own voice; or the Arabic "jazib", one who allures. The intimate association of jazz with American black culture has led others to look for an origin in African languages, such as the Mandingo "jasi", become unlike oneself, Tshiluba "jaja", cause to dance, or Temne "yas", be extremely lively or energetic. One early jazz player, Garvin Bushell, was sure it had a fragrant origin. In his 1988 book "Jazz From the Beginning", he remembers his early days in music, around 1916: "The perfume industry was very big in New Orleans in those days, since the French had brought it over with them. They used jasmine - oil of jasmine - in all different odors to pep it up. It gave more force to the scent. So they would say, 'let's jass it up a bit,' when something was a little dead." John Philip Sousa suggested in the 1920s that jazz slid into our vocabulary by way of the vaudeville stage, in which all the acts would come back on to the stage at the end of a performance to give a rousing, boisterous finale called a "jazzbo", a type of low physical comedy; however, "jazzbo" isn't recorded before 1917 and might be from "jazz" plus "bo", an abbreviation of "boy". What we do know, as the result of research by Gerald Cohen, is that the word suddenly starts to appear in the "San Francisco Bulletin" in March 1913 in a series of articles about baseball by E T "Scoop" Gleeson (it's recently been found that an isolated example appeared about a year earlier in the "Los Angeles Times", but this is also in a baseball context). Early examples had nothing to do with music but referred to an intangible quality possessed by baseball players, what another writer in the newspaper, Ernest Hopkins, described in April that year as "life, vigor, energy, effervescence of spirit, joy, pep, magnetism, verve, virility, ebulliency, courage, happiness - oh, what's the use? - JAZZ. Nothing else can express it". Gleeson later said that he had got it from another newsman, Spike Slattery, while they were at the training camp of the local baseball team, the "San Francisco Seals". Slattery said he had heard it in a crap game. Art Hickman, an unemployed local musician, was at the camp to make contacts among the newsmen but took on the job of organising evening entertainments. Among these was a ragtime band he created from other out-of-work musicians, including a couple of banjo players. It was this band that developed a new sound that started to be described in the training camp as jazz. This name went with Hickman to engagements in San Francisco and later to New York, though his type of syncopated rag, later to be called sweet jazz, turned out to be a dead end musically. By the following year, it seems that the word had spread to Chicago, most probably through the efforts of another bandleader, Bert Kelly. In 1916 it appeared there in a different spelling in the name of the "New Orleans Jass Band". Despite this band's name, the word wasn't known in New Orleans until 1917, as early jazz musicians attested. It is said to have arrived through the medium of a letter from Freddie Keppard in Chicago to the cornet player Joe Oliver. Oliver showed the letter to his prot?g? Louis Armstrong and the name soon became applied to the New Orleans style that became dominant and which was later called hot jazz to distinguish it from the Art Hickman sort. The big question remains: where did those San Francisco crapshooters of 1913 get their word from? Scoop Gleason said that when they rolled the dice players would call out "Come on, the old jazz". It looks as though they were using the word as an incantation, a call to Lady Luck to smile on them. It's commonly said that the word had strong sexual associations, being a low slang term among blacks for copulation. This may be so, though it's odd that the worldly-wise journalists on the "San Francisco Bulletin" didn't realise it at the time. If they had, they would surely have stopped using it, at least in their newspaper columns. The first direct sexual associations date only from 1918, at a point by which the word's musical sense had become firmly established. We have no knowledge of the racial background of those crap shooters in San Francisco, so there's even doubt whether the word has any associations with black English at all. The most plausible sexual origin is in the word "jism", also known as "jasm". This has a long history in American English, being known in print from 1842 and probably a lot earlier still in the spoken language. It could have the same sense of spirit, energy or strength later associated with jazz, but the primary idea seems to have been semen or sperm, a meaning "jism" still has, one that has obvious associations with vitality and virility. It may be relevant that one of the earlier examples, in the "Daily Californian" in February 1916, writes the word as "jaz-m". It doesn't seem too implausible to suggest that "jasm" lost its final letter, turned into "jass" and then into "jazz". It's likely that Gleeson and his fellow newspapermen didn't connect their new word "jazz" with "jism", not knowing about the intermediate steps. Of course, that just takes the whole matter back another step in this never-ending dance of word history. The "English Dialect Dictionary" records the 18th-century form "chissom" - "to bud, sprout or germinate", which looks possible. Others have pointed to an origin, via black slaves, from words like Ki-Kongo "dinza", the life force, or from other African languages. So at least some of those folk etymologies may be nearer the truth than one might have thought.

jejune
[juh-JOON, jih-JOON]
1. Lacking in nutritive value; meager; dry.
2. Displaying or suggesting a lack of maturity; childish, juvenile, puerile.
3. Lacking interest or significance; dull.
Examples:
1) Were I to make this public now, it would be dismissed as the raving of a mind at the end of its tether, unable to distinguish fiction from reality, real life from the jejune fantasies of its youth. (Ronald Wright, "A Scientific Romance")
2) By the inflection of his voice, the expression of his face, and the motion of his body, he signals that he is aware of all the ways he may be thought silly or jejune, and that he might even think so himself. (Jedediah Purdy, "For Common Things")
3) A while ago, Michael Kinsley wrote that Jewish Americans envied Israelis for living out history in a way that made the comfort and security of life in New York or Los Angeles seem jejune. (Geoffrey Wheatcroft, "The Big Kibbutz," New York Times, March 2, 1997)
4) Professor Hazlett's jejune lectures often left students dozing in the auditorium.
Etymology:
"Jejune" derives from Latin "jejunus" - "fasting, hence hungry, hence scanty, empty of food, meager, weak."
If you are starved for excitement, you won't get it from something jejune. Back in the 1600s, English speakers used "jejune" in senses very similar to those of its Latin parent, lamenting "jejune appetites" and "jejune morsels." Something that is meager usually doesn't satisfy one's desires, and before long "jejune" was being used not only for meager meals or hunger, but also for things wanting in intellectual or emotional substance. The word most likely gained its "juvenile" or "childish" sense when people confused it with the look-alike French word "jeune," which means "young."


jeremiad
[jair-uh-MY-uhd]
A tale of sorrow, disappointment, or complaint; a doleful story; also, a dolorous or angry tirade.
Examples:
1) This age in which leisure and letters were gilded with commerce did not see the decline and fall of art, despite the jeremiads of such artists as William Blake ('Where any view of money exists,' he prophesied, 'art cannot be carried on'). (Roy Porter, "English Society in the Eighteenth Century")
2) Johnson's jeremiad against what he sees as American imperialism and militarism exhaustively catalogs decades of U.S. military misdeeds. (Stan Crock, review of "The Sorrows of Empire", by Chalmers Johnson, Business Week, February 2, 2004)
3) Economics ministers in general were taken aback when a recent World Bank report - after a year of jeremiads - suggested the crisis was being exaggerated. (Lance Castle, "The economic crisis revisited," Jakarta Post, April 1, 1999)
Etymology:
"Jeremiad" comes from French "j?r?miade", after J?r?mie, Jeremiah, the prophet.


jerk

• jerkwater town
• jerkwater
• town
• jerk off

1. (Slang) Mean or unlikeable person; annoying person; dull stupid fatuous person Synonym: dork
2. Jolt, jar; sudden pull, sudden start or spring; involuntary muscular spasm.
3. A formerly popular dance.
4. To push or pull suddenly; to move or cause to move in a sharp and sudden or in a jolting manner; to make a sudden motion; to throw with a quick and suddenly arrested motion of the hand.
5. To work at a soda fountain.
6. To prepare preserved meat; to cut into long slices or strips and dry in the sun.
7. (Obs.) To beat; to strike. 8. To flout with contempt. Examples:
1) Tony is such a jerk - he stole my lunch money!
2) His jade gave him a jerk.
3) Lobsters swim backwards by jerks or springs.
4) The thief jerked a tall man with the elbow and ran away.
5) A boy jerk a coat off and rushed after his friends.
6) He has never dared more than to jerk an occasional stone at this awful dog.
Etymology, more meanings, related words and expressions:
jerk (n.): 1935, "tedious and ineffectual person," Amer.Eng. carnival slang, perhaps from "jerkwater town" (1878), where a steam locomotive crew had to take on boiler water from a trough or a creek because there was no water tank. This led 1890s to an adj. use of "jerk" as "inferior, insignificant." Probably also infl. by verb "jerk off", slang for "perform male masturbation" (first recorded 1916). "Jerk off" (n.) as an emphatic form of "jerk" (n.) first attested 1968.
jerk (v.): 1550, "to lash, strike as with a whip," of uncertain origin, perhaps echoic. Noun sense of "sudden sharp pull or twist" first recorded 1575. Meaning "involuntary spasmodic movement of limbs or features" first recorded 1805. As the name of a popular dance, it is attested from 1966. Sense in soda jerk attested from 1883, from the pulling motion required to work the taps.


jet set

• jet
• set

The wealthy, fashionable, and famous people who travel frequently; a set of rich and fashionable people who travel widely for pleasure.
Example:
My aunt Ida, on her farm in Iowa, loves to read about the jet set.
Etymology:
"Jet" refers to jet planes. "Set" is a group of people. After the introduction of travel by swift jet planes in the late 1950s, the term "jet set" caught on to describe rich and fashionable people who rarely stayed in one place for any length of time. They were always flying off to a party in Hollywood, or to a luxurious home in Spain. Today, to be a member of the jet set, you just have to be a member of high society. The fact that "jet" and "set" rhyme helped make this a widely used phrase.

jeunesse doree

• jeunesse
• doree

[zheuh-ness-dor-RAY]
Young people of wealth and fashion.
Example:
On any sunny afternoon in Dublin, you will see the jeunesse doree taking their ease under the awnings of pavement cafes. (Bruce Anderson, "The Spectator", July 2001)
History:
French revolutionary leader Maximilien Robespierre and his allies, the Jacobins, gained many enemies for their role in the Reign of Terror. One of their fiercest opponents was Louis Freron, a former Jacobin who played a key role in overthrowing their government. On July 27, 1794, counter-revolutionaries toppled the Jacobin regime and had Robespierre arrested and executed. In the midst of the chaos that followed, Louis Freron organized gangs of fashionably dressed young toughs to terrorize the remaining Jacobins. French speakers called those stylish young thugs the "jeunesse doree" - literally, the "gilded youth." By the time the term "jeunesse doree" was adopted into English in the 1830s, it had lost its association with violent street gangs and simply referred to any wealthy young socialites.


jiffle
to fidget or shuffle


jiggered

• jigger

1. (South Yorkshire dialect) Exhausted.
2. (British informal expletive) Surprised.
Example:
Well, I'm jiggered!


jigsaw

• jig-saw
• jig
• saw

(n.)
1. A usually power-driven saw with a narrow vertical blade, used to cut sharp curves.
2. a picture printed on cardboard or wood, that has been cut up into a lot of small pieces of different shapes that you have to fit together again.
Example:
We were doing a jigsaw the whole evening yesterday.
Synonym: jigsaw puzzle.
3. a mysterious situation in which it is not easy to understand all the causes of what is happening; a complicated problem.
Example:
If Hollis was a double agent then the Crabb affair fits neatly into the jigsaw.
(v.)
4. to cut or form by or as if by a jigsaw;
5. to arrange or place in an intricate or interlocking way.
(adj.)
6. suggesting a jigsaw puzzle or its separate pieces.
Etymology: 19th Century; from jig (to jerk up and down rapidly) + saw

jimjams

• jimjam
• jitters
• jitter
• delirium tremens
• delirium
• tremens
• tremen

[JIM-jamz]
(plural) jitters
Example:
"I love cappuccinos, but the caffeine gives me the jimjams," said Paula.
History:
When "jimjams" entered English in the mid-19th century, it probably referred to a specific kind of jitters - the "delirium tremens," a violent delirium caused by excessive drinking. "Jimjams" is not particularly common today, but when it is used in current American English it means simply "jitters." Etymologists aren't sure about the origin of the term. Some speculate that it came about as an alteration of "delirium tremens." Others, though uncertain of the origin of "jim" and "jam," notice that the word follows a pattern of similar words in which one sound is repeated or altered slightly. Interestingly, other words for "jitters" were formed in the same repetitive way - "whim-whams" and "heebie-jeebies" are examples.


jingoism

• jingoist
• jingo
• spread-eagleism

1. Aggressive or warlike patriotism; fanatical patriotism; extreme chauvinism or nationalism marked especially by a belligerent foreign policy.
2. An appeal intended to arouse patriotic emotions.
Example:
Albert Einstein found German jingoism in the 1930s so objectionable that he left his homeland never to return.
History:
This word is still as popular as it ever was, but few writers who use it to describe a bellicose chauvinistic attitude to foreigners know it's from a magician's catchphrase via a music-hall song. "Jingo" dates from the late seventeenth century and is first recorded in the forms "by jingo!" or "high jingo!" as a bit of conjuror's patter when some item was revealed as though by magic (the opposite of "hey presto!", used when something was ordered to disappear). "By jingo!" was also used around this time as another of the many euphemisms for "by God" or "by Jesus" and so became an interjection to show one's surprise or to give emphasis. It turns up, as one example out of a very large number, in Fanny Burney's "Evelina" of 1778: "'If I live an hundred springs,' answered he, 'I shall never forget it; by Jingo, it has served me for a most excellent good joke ever since.'" Exactly a century later, during the Russo-Turkish war, Russia was threatening to capture Constantinople. Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli counseled neutrality in the conflict, to the consternation of many in Britain. George Hunt, a prolific writer of music-hall songs, composed a topical song for the actor and singer Gilbert Macdermot (real name Gilbert Farrell), who was then performing regularly at the London Pavilion under the stage name of The Great MacDermot. The song immediately became a hit, especially the first four lines of its refrain:
We don't want to fight
but by jingo if we do...
We've got the ships, we've got the men,
and got the money too!
This was taken up by what we would now call the hawks of the London public, who were baying for the Russians' blood. The "Daily News" first called them "jingoes" in its issue of 11 March 1878; a subscriber wrote to the paper two days later about "The Jingoes - the new type of music-hall patriots who sing the Jingo song". The prime minister, William Gladstone, had by then ordered the Mediterranean fleet to the defence of Constantinople and indeed the war had already ended on 3 March through the signing of the treaty of San Stefano between Russia and Turkey. During the 19th century in the United States, this attitude was called spread-eagleism. This patriotic belligerence was intensified by the sinking of the Maine and led to the Spanish-American War. "Jingoism" did not enter the U.S. vernacular until the twentieth century. Nevertheless, the word, especially the derived nouns "jingoist" and "jingoism", survived to become fixed parts of the language.
Synonym:
spread-eagleism


jinni

• jinn
• Djinni
• djinn

[JEE-nee]
1. One of a class of spirits that according to Muslim demonology inhabit the earth, assume various forms, and exercise supernatural power.
2. A magic spirit believed to take human form and serve the person who calls it; genie.
Example:
It's always best to stay on the good side of a jinni, and there are ways to placate a troublesome one.
History, related forms:
Is that "jinni" or "jinn"? "Djinni" or "djinn"? Adopted from an Arabic word for demon (usually represented in the English alphabet as "jinni"), this word is spelled a variety of ways in English. All of those variant spellings are used to describe a supernatural spirit from Arabic mythology that is made of fire or air and can assume human or animal form. Mythology holds that jinn (that's the plural of "jinni") love to punish humans for any harm done to them and that they are the cause of many accidents and diseases.


jjj

• JJJ

(chat, Internet) gooses for all; JJJ - big gooses for all

job hunting

• job hunter
• job
• hunting

job searching, act of looking for an employment position

jocund
[JOCK-uhnd; JOH-kuhnd]
Full of or expressing high-spirited merriment; light-hearted; mirthful.
Examples:
1) His careless manners and jocund repartees might well seem incompatible with anything serious. (William Prescott, "History of the Conquest of Mexico")
2) There was once a widow, fair, young, free, rich, and withal very pleasant and jocund, that fell in love with a certain round and well-set servant of a college. (Miguel de Cervantes, "Don Quixote", translated by Thomas Shelton)
3) Many a glad good morrow and jocund laugh from the young folk Made the bright air brighter. (Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, "Evangeline")
Etymology:
"Jocund" is from Old French "jocond", from Latin "jucundus" ("pleasant, agreeable, delightful"), from "juvare" ("to please, to delight").


joe

• old black joe
• old black
• old
• black

(informal) brewed coffee.
Example:
Would you drink a cup of joe?
Etymology:
Short for old black joe, military slang for coffee, from the title of a song by Stephen Foster.


joke oak

• Joke
• oak
• Neo Geo
• Neo
• Geo

A pejorative label used by architectural designers in Britain.
Example:
U.K. news: architects may think they've won with Gummer's Law - but there's lots of teeth-gnashing going on: classic mansions vs. McMansions vs. "Neo-Geo and Joke Oak homes" vs. "champagne architects" vs. everything else&lots of opinions&you to decide. ("Today's News" August 5, 2004)
History, related words:
This appeared in a news item in August 2004, about a decision by the British government to change the planning laws that affect the building of new country houses. "Joke oak" goes with other terms like "Neo Geo" for the Neo-Georgian style that is so often employed by developers in leafy suburbia. "Joke oak" would seem to refer to the fake half- timbered mock-Tudor house popular in such areas in the 1930s.


jollification
[jol-ih-fuh-KAY-shuhn]
Merrymaking; festivity; revelry.
Examples:
1) Some inform; some prompt the conscience; some entertain, while having more than jollification in mind. (Stuart Klawans, "A Greek Bearing Gifts," The Nation, June 21, 1999)
2) In July, expect the usual impertinent jollifications in Key West: look-alike and Key-lime-pie-eating contests, arm-wrestling tournaments. (David Gates, "Resurrecting Papa," Newsweek, April 12, 1999)
Etymology:
"Jollification" is from "jolly" (from Old French "joli, jolif" = "joyful, merry") + Latin "-ficare", combining form of "facere" ("to make").


journeyman

• journey

1. A worker who has learned a trade and works for another person usually by the day.
Example:
Once Hank had mastered carpentry he quit his sales job, and he now works day-to-day as a journeyman.
2. An experienced reliable worker or performer especially as distinguished from one who is brilliant or colorful.
Etymology:
The "journey" in "journeyman" refers to a sense of this familiar word not often used anymore: "a day's labor". This sense of "journey" was first used in the 14th century. When "journeyman" appeared the following century, it originally referred to a person who, having learned a handicraft or trade through an apprenticeship, worked for daily wages. In the 16th century, "journeyman" picked up a figurative (and mainly deprecatory) sense; namely, "one who drudges for another". These days, however, "journeyman" has little to do with drudgery, and lots to do with knowing a trade inside out.


jovial
[JOH-vee-ul]
1. Capitalized.
2. Of or relating to Jove.
3. Markedly good-humored; merry; joyous; jolly; characterized by mirth or jollity.
Examples:
1) Andy remembered his Uncle Jim as a jovial, easy-going gentleman with a ready smile, a firm handshake, and a cheery greeting for all.
2) One pupil of the sixteen-year-old Custer remembered him as "socially inclined," jovial, and full of life. (Louise Barnett, "Touched by Fire")
3) The Puritans took a dim view of the jovial, amiable cleric who liked to have a pot of ale at one of Purleigh's pubs. (Willard Sterne Randall, "George Washington: A Life")
4) He smiled, joked and at times seemed downright jovial. ("Piazza Booed Again (Till He Homers)", New York Times, August 22, 1998)
Etymology:
In Roman astrology, planets were named after gods, and people were thought to share the personality traits of the god whose planet was rising when they were born. Jupiter, also called Jove, was the chief Roman god and was considered a majestic, authoritative type who was the source of joy and happiness. The planet Jupiter was thought to make those born under it joyful or jovial. The Late Latin adjective "jovialis" meant "of or relating to Jove (Jupiter)." In Middle French this had become "jovial." English speakers picked up "jovial" in the late 16th century and began applying it to folks who shared the majestic or good-natured character of Jupiter (regardless of their zodiac sign).


joystick

• joyride

1. A lever used by a pilot to control the ailerons and elevators of an airplane.
Synonyms:
stick, control stick 2. A manual control consisting of a vertical handle that can move freely in two directions; used as an input device to computers or to devices controlled by computers.
Example:
The device isn't meant to replace the keyboard/mouse/joystick.
3. (slang, vulg.) Penis.
Etymology, more examples:
Perhaps, from English slang "joystick" - "p*nis", thanks to wild-living WWI pilots, who used a slang term from their interests in the carnal lusts of the flesh.
Well, we do know that the term actually predates World War One and is first recorded from a British source. In a search for its source some etymologists have been led up a blind alley. Several works on aviation history cite a man named Joyce as the inventor, so that the first form was presumably "Joyce stick", later slurred and compressed into "joystick". However, nobody who has looked into the matter has been able to find any evidence for the existence of this person (he is sometimes given as James Joyce, but that must be an unconscious transfer of his first name from the author). The first example known of "joystick" is in an 1910 entry in the diary of the pioneering British aeronaut Robert Loraine (in that year he made the first radio transmission from an aeroplane and - less significantly, but as an example of the still primitive state of the art - became the first man to land an aeroplane on the Isle of Wight). He wrote: "In order that he shall not blunder inadvertently into the air, the central lever - otherwise the 'cloche', or joy-stick is tied well forward". ("Cloche" was the then usual French name for the same device, from the bell shape of the base of some early types, especially in the Bleriot monoplane, to which all the control wires were fixed.) So, was the insubstantial Mr Joyce an attempt by writers to remove any suspicion that there was indeed a sexual element in the choice of the term? Some writers on word history have certainly claimed that the shape of the stick and its position between the (always male) pilot's legs led to the term. But as Mr Loraine's diary entry shows, the early joysticks were a different shape that may well not have suggested such a link. "Joystick" is indeed recorded as a slang term for the p*nis, but it appears in writing for the first time in 1916; this might suggest it was borrowed from the aviation term, not the other way round, though the dates of slang terms are notoriously unreliable. On balance, it seems more likely that "joystick" derives from another sense of "joy" that was around at the time. The closest in time and space was "joyride", which appeared in Britain around 1908 for an unauthorised trip in a vehicle; however, the early examples referred to motor vehicles, not aircraft (the latter were so rare and so hard to fly that the opportunity for an outsider to take one for a joyride, or the skill to do so, just didn't exist). The implication may have been that the aircraft's control column was the means to the exhilaration felt by an early pilot's journey into the air, which was always an adventurous undertaking, not to say a hazardous one.

jubilee

• jubilation

1. A special anniversary; 50th anniversary, golden anniversary;
2. Time of celebration and rejoicing, festive season; a season of general joy.
3. (Judaism) Every fiftieth year, being the year following the completion of each seventh sabbath of years, at which time all the slaves of Hebrew blood were liberated, and all lands which had been alienated during the whole period reverted to their former owners. (In this sense spelled also, in some English Bibles, jubile.) 4. (Roman Catholic Church) a church solemnity or ceremony celebrated at Rome, at stated intervals, originally of one hundred years, but latterly of twenty-five; a plenary and extraordinary indulgence grated by the sovereign pontiff to the universal church. (One invariable condition of granting this indulgence is the confession of sins and receiving of the eucharist.) 5. A state of joy or exultation.
Examples:
1) The town was all a jubilee of feasts.
2) It was not only his jubilee - it was the jubilee of his spirits.
Etymology:
The word "jubilee" derives from the Hebrew "yovel" ("ram's horn"). In English (via the Late Latin "jubilaeus" - "the jubilee year"), the word has come to denote a time of rejoicing. Note that the word "jubilation" ("joyfulness, gladness; celebration, festivity, rejoicing, exultation") derives from the etymologically unrelated Latin word "jubilare" ("to shout with joy").



judgment

• judgement
• Judgmental
• Judgemental

[JUJ-munt]
1. A formal utterance of an authoritative opinion; decree, sentence; verdict, sentence of a court.
2. The capacity for judging or the exercise of this capacity; ability to judge, good sense; discernment.
3. The act of judging.
4. Forming of an opinion.
5. An assessment, opinion.
Example:
Theresa showed good judgment by clearing her family out of the house as soon as she smelled gas.
History, variants of spelling, related words:
C.1225, "a pronunciation of an opinion, criticism," from O.Fr. "jugement", from O.Fr. "jugier" ("to judge"), from L. "judicare" ("to judge"), from "judicem" (nom. "judex") - "to judge," a compound of "jus" ("right, law") + root of "dicere" ("to say"). Meaning "trial of moral beings by God" is from c.1340. Sense of "discernment" is first recorded 1535. "Judgmental" ("inclined to make moral judgments") is from 1952.
"Judgment" can also be spelled "judgement," and usage experts have long disagreed over which spelling is the preferred one. Henry Fowler asserted, "The OED ["Oxford English Dictionary"] prefers the older and more reasonable spelling. 'Judgement' is therefore here recommended." William Safire held an opposite opinion, writing, "My judgment is that Fowler is not to be followed." "Judgement" is in fact the older spelling, but it dropped from favor and for centuries "judgment" was the only spelling to appear in dictionaries. That changed when the OED (Fowler's source) was published showing "judgement" as an equal variant. Today, both spellings of the word are common. "Judgment" appears to be more popular in the U.S., whereas "judgement" is slightly more frequent in Britain.


juggernaut
1. (chiefly British) a large heavy truck
2. a massive inexorable force, campaign, movement, or object that crushes whatever is in its path
Example: Two years ago, Tech Inc. was just a start-up company, but it is now an industrial juggernaut capable of steamrollering its competition.
Etymology:
In the early 14th century, Franciscan missionary Friar Odoric brought to Europe the story of an enormous carriage that carried an image of the Hindu god Vishnu (whose title was "Jagannath," literally, "lord of the world") through the streets of India in religious processions. Odoric reported that some worshippers deliberately allowed themselves to be crushed beneath the vehicle's wheels as a sacrifice to Vishnu. That story was probably an exaggeration or misinterpretation of actual events, but it spread throughout Europe anyway. The tale caught the imagination of English listeners, and by the 19th century, they were using "juggernaut" to refer to any massive vehicle (such as a steam locomotive) or to any other enormous entity with powerful crushing capabilities.


jumbo
1. (n.) something that is very large (person, animal, thing, etc.); 2. (adj.) giant, huge, extremely large.
Etymology:
The word certainly came into popular language because of an ill-fated elephant. Jumbo, an African elephant, arrived from Paris to the London Zoo on 26 June 1865 and he remained in London for years, giving rides to thousands of children and becoming a great favourite with the public. When fully grown he was the largest elephant known at the time, standing 12 feet tall and weighing over six tons. However, the Zoo sold him to Barnum and Bailey's Circus in 1882, and he was sadly to be killed by a train in Ontario three years later.



jump down one's throat

• jump down your throat
• jump down the throat
• jump down
• throat
• jump

To talk or scream at someone in a sudden, angry way.
Example:
All I said was, 'Could you not give us homework tonight, Mr. Brill,' and he jumped down my throat.
History:
This saying has been popular since the early 1800s. If someone jumps at you, they suddenly and quickly spring off the ground. Your larynx and vocal chords, which produce speech, are located in your throat. So if you say something that angers someone, then he or she would be "jumping down your throat" by suddenly scolding you.

jump off the deep end

• jump off
• deep end
• jump
• deep
• end

To act emotionally without carefully thinking about the end result; to become deeply involved before you're ready to.
Example:
Ed and Esther just met, but they're getting married. They're jumping off the deep end.
History:
People should not jump into the deep end of a swimming pool if they are not 100% sure that they can swim. It's better to start in the shallow end and swim to the deeper side. But if people follow their emotions without much thought, they could be in deep water and in over their heads. Since the early 1900s "jump off the deep end" has also meant going into a rage or having a mental breakdown.

jump on the bandwagon

• jump on
• bandwagon
• jump
• get on the bandwagon
• climb on the bandwagon
• get on
• climb on
• get
• climb

To follow the lead of other people, do as everyone else is doing; to join a popular activity; to become part of the newest activity because many other people are.
Synonyms: get on the bandwagon; climb on the bandwagon.
Examples:
1) Everyone has jumped on the bandwagon to try and stop smoking in the workplace.
2) Last year nobody liked my idea of a school carnival. Now everyone wants to jump on the bandwagon.
History:
Many years ago candidates for political office in the United States often rode through town in horse-drawn wagons on which a band was playing music to attract a crowd. If the candidate was popular, people would jump up onto his bandwagon to show their support. Today we say that people who are getting involved in any activity that looks like it's going to succeed are "jumping on the bandwagon."


jump ship

• jump
• ship

1. To leave one's job.
2. To move from one situation to another.
3. To go to work for the other team (the competition).
Examples:
1) When the company announced that it was losing money, many of its employees jumped ship.
2) The company asked me to sign a form saying I wouldn't jump ship.
Etymology:
A 'ship' is a boat - so when you 'jump ship' you flee (or leave) the boat by leaping over the side.

jump the couch

• jump
• couch
• Cruisazy
• jump the shark
• shark
• couch jumpers
• couch jumper
• jumpers
• jumper

1. To behave in a very strange, energetic way which suggests that you are out of control.
2. The defining moment when you know someone has finally gone off the deep end, never to return.
3. To openly express your love or infatuation with someone. Examples:
1) Wales captain Gareth Thomas 'jumped the couch' on the BBC following his side's loss to England and of a coach. The only conclusion to be drawn from Alfie's hectic demeanour was that Mike Ruddock left because he had lost the support of his senior players - exactly the accusation that Thomas was trying to disprove. ("Planet Rugby", 21st March 2006) 2) On 23rd May 2005, actor Tom Cruise gave a completely unexpected display of frenetic behaviour on a US talk show, and in doing so unwittingly gave birth to a new idiom in the English language, to jump the couch.
History, related words: When asked about his relationship with actress Katie Holmes during an interview on the Oprah Winfrey show, Tom Cruise celebrated his new-found love for the actress by bouncing excitedly across the sofa. This bizarre physical display caused a predictable surge of media interest, and just a few weeks afterwards, the expression "jump the couch" began popping up in print all over the English-speaking world. And "couch jumpers" are usually rich actors who appear on a nationally televised show to show off their new girlfriend. Here was a new idiom describing the situation of suddenly behaving in such a frenetic way that you show signs of emotional instability. Editors of the four volume "Historical Dictionary of American Slang" chose "jump the couch" as the slang expression of the year for 2005. The phrase was also identified in the annual shortlist of 'Words of the Year" <http://www.americandialect.org/ index.php/amerdial/categories/C178/> from the American Dialect Society, which laughingly referred to a category "Cruiselex": the 'Best Tom-Cruise-Related Word' (also including the word "Cruisazy", meaning 'crazy in the manner of Tom Cruise'). Predictably, "to jump the couch" is an expression most commonly used to describe the behaviour of people in the public eye, especially celebrities and politicians. Episodes of celebrity exhibitionism are now even being posthumously described as someone having 'jumped the couch', such as the late actor Oliver Reed appearing drunk on a UK chat show in 1986, and former Labour party leader Neil Kinnock behaving hysterically at the notorious Sheffield Rally in the week before the 1992 UK general election. The expression "jump the couch", though in one sense an accurate description of Cruise's actions, is based on an earlier idiomatic expression, "jump the shark". This expression has been used since the 1990s to denote the idea of a TV show passing its peak. Once a TV show has jumped the shark, fans notice a decline in quality, especially if the show has undergone so many changes that it does not retain its original appeal. The phrase "jump the shark" is based on a scene in the TV series "Happy Days", when the popular character Fonzie jumps over a shark while on water skis. After this episode, it was alleged that subsequent episodes were never as good, and the phrase "jump the shark" was associated with a desperate and rather futile attempt to rekindle the popularity of a show in the face of a decline in ratings. There's even a website <http://www.jumptheshark.com> devoted to this phenomenon!


jump the gun

• beat the pistol
• jump
• gun
• beat
• pistol

To do or say something before you should; to act prematurely or hastily; to act too soon, before the proper time; to act on an impulse, without thinking carefully.
Examples:
1) Hey, don't jump the gun. Listen to what he has to say before you make a decision.
2) I couldn't wait to give my mother her Mother's Day gift, so I jumped the gun and gave it to her a week early.
Etymology: This phrase comes from sports. Runners begin a race with the firing of a gun (the starter's pistol). If a runner starts before the gun has been fired, he has 'jumped the gun'.
In the early 1900s this expression was " to beat the pistol." Later the saying change to "jump the gun", perhaps because of the repetition of the "u" sound in the middle of "jump" and "gun".

jump the shark

• jumping the shark
• jumped the shark
• JTS
• jumping
• jumped
• jump
• shark

1. In a television show, to include an over-the-top scene or plot twist that is indicative either of an irreversible decline in the show's quality or of a desperate bid to stem the show's declining ratings.
Also: JTS.
jump-the-shark - adj. jumping the shark - pp.; n. Example:
There is a flip side to this, of course, at least in television, namely a moment when you realize that the series is going downhill, the standard has been lost and convention has taken over. It's called to "jump the shark". (Jeff Abramowitz, "It's all down hill", Jerusalem Post, May 29, 1998)
History:
"Jumping the shark" is a slang term used by television critics in the 1990s. The phrase, popularized at the web site <http://www.jumptheshark.com>, is used to describe the moment when a long-running television show is generally judged to have passed its "peak" and shows a noticeable decline in quality. A show in decline is said to have "jumped the shark". The phrase specifically refers to a three-part episode of the American series "Happy Days" during which the character Fonzie jumps over a shark while on water skis (or water-skied over a shark in a bay). After that moment, the show was no longer worth watching, and even before "jumping the shark" was employed as a popular culture term, the episode in question was many times cited as an example of what happens to otherwise high quality programs when they stay on the air too long. The first uses of the phrase as a direct metaphor is reported to have been made popular starting from December 24, 1997 when the site was posted by Jon Hein. He said that other "jump the shark" moments were caused by a cast member reaching puberty or a new actor starting to play an existing character. In print, it was in the "Jerusalem Post" newspaper written by Jeff Abramowitz on May 29, 1998, entitled, "It's All Downhill". According to the jumptheshark.com Web site, the phrase was first coined by Hein's college roommate, Sean J. Connolly, in 1985.
2. a defining moment when you realize that something has reached its peak. that instant that you know from that point on, its all down hill.
Example:
Cheers jumped the shark when the charachter Dianne was replaced with Rebecca (Craig Neuman <http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=jump+the+shark&f=1>, Aug 6, 2003)
3. (modern American slang) To act hastily with negative results; to have a plan of action that is doomed from the outset.
Example:
Did AOL's Instant Messenger jump the shark when it shut down interoperability with AIMster, jabber, and other third-party IM apps?
4. the phrase is used in reference to a politician whose policies (to borrow another allusion) were past their sell-by date, or to an event in a candidate's campaign that marked the effective end of their hopes of election.


jumpy

• jittery

Nervous or apprehensive; afraid that something bad will happen.
Examples:
1) I'm always a little bit jumpy when I walk by the graveyard at night. 2) Rachel sure is jumpy today. I said 'hello' and she nearly hit the ceiling!
Etymology:
To 'jump' means to move into the air by springing or leaping up, so someone who is 'jumpy' is on the edge of leaping into the air in surprise or fear. Synonym: jittery


juncture

• conjugal
• junta

[JUNK-cher]
1. Joint, connection.
2. A critical time or state of affairs.
Example:
At this early juncture in his career, Wayne should try to learn as many new skills as he can; that way, he'll be prepared when opportunities for advancement present themselves.
Etymology, related words:
Some of the English words that share the same root as "juncture" are easy to spot, whereas others are not so obvious. "Juncture" derives from the Latin verb "jungere" ("to join"), which gave us not only "join" and "junction" but also "conjugal" ("relating to marriage") and "junta" ("a group of persons controlling a government"). "Jungere" also has distant etymological connections to "joust," "jugular," "juxtapose," "yoga" and "yoke." The use of "juncture" in English dates back to the 14th century. Originally, the word meant "a place where two or more things are joined," but by the 17th century it could also be used of a time made critical by a convergence of circumstances.


junk food

• junk
• food
• fast food
• fast

Food that has little or no nutritional value, usually high in fat and calories; sweet or fried snacks like candy and potato chips; quickly prepared food, usually served by large chains such as McDonalds.
Examples:
1) If you want to lose weight, you should stop eating so much junk food.
2) I'm sick of McDonalds - can't we have something besides fast food for a change?
Etymology:
'Junk' refers to old, broken things, or worthless objects. So 'junk food' is food that has no value for your body.
Synonym: fast food


junta
[HUN-tuh, JUHN-tuh] 1. A governmental council or committee, especially one that rules after a revolution. 2. A closely knit group united for a common purpose and usually meeting secretly; also called a junto.
Examples:
1) His greatest fear, said Wole Soyinka, the Nigerian Nobel laureate and ardent foe of military rule, is that with the death of one tyrant, the world will not press for the entire junta to step aside. ("Nobel Winner Calls for Nigerian Ruler to Release Political Prisoners", New York Times, June 12, 1998)
2) The Greek junta that seized power during 1967 mobilized the courts against its foes. (Charles S. Maier, "Dissolution")
3) Two days after the coup, the junta announced that General Videla had been designated President of the Nation. (Marguerite Feitlowitz, "A Lexicon of Terror")
4) Still, the resemblance to political revolution is, in important ways, only metaphorical. Computer nerds aside, there is no junta driving this process of change. (Andrew L. Shapiro, "The Control Revolution")

juxtaposition

• juxtapose

[juhk-stuh-puh-ZISH-uhn] The act or an instance of placing in nearness or side by side.
Examples:
1) I had sent from Egypt two Coptic sculptures from the fifth and sixth centuries and placed them in juxtaposition with a contemporary stone mask from Zimbabwe, with striking effect. (Boutros Boutros-Ghali, "Unvanquished: A U.S.-U.N. Saga")
2) This aesthetically pleasing juxtaposition of contradictions is one of the hallmarks of poetry. (Ann Marlowe, "Hyphenated Life", New York Times, October 15, 2000)
3) One of the things that made the diary so poignant . . . is the awful juxtaposition of the ordinary and the horrific, the mundane and the unimaginable. (Michiko Kakutani, "When a Spirited Teen-Ager Faced the Unimaginable", New York Times, September 29, 1998)
Etymology, related words:
"Juxtaposition" comes from Latin "juxta" ("near") + "positio" ("position"), from the past participle of "ponere" ("to put, to place"). The related verb "juxtapose" means "to place side by side."