A-Z Database
Meaning a deep, black colour dates from the mid-15th century and derives from the geological material known as jet, which is part of the lignite group...
This is a slightly more modern form of jetsam but not by much. Both words have been used since the 15th century. Jettison now means to throw anything...
see In a jiff/jiffy
Jiggery-pokery means dishonest or deceitful goings-on, as in the sentence, “I could not be sure, but I suspected there was some sort of jiggery-pokery...
Jim-jam is what the OED likes to call “a fanciful reduplicated formation with vowel alternation”, like flim-flam, flip-flop etc. Jim-jam originates fr...
An American minced oath for Jesus Christ dates from the early 20th century, also a famous Walt Disney character since 1940. It is doubtful Disney woul...
Rhyming slang for piddle, i.e. urinate, Jimmy Riddle/piddle, dates from the late 19th century and does not derive from any known person.
As in the jingle of bells, spurs, keys etc dates from the 14th century and is purely imitative or echoic in origin. Jingle in the sense of a catching...
Scots dialect word meaning, to move in a sudden, quick manner dates from the early 18th century. Rugby commentators talk of players setting off on a j...
In Greek mythology, Iynx, from whom the word is derived, was a nymph, the daughter of Pan. Her speciality was love potions, one of which induced Zeus...
A piano, rhyming slang Joanna/piano, where piano is pronounced ‘pianna’, dates from c. 1912.
Jock is a Scottish nickname for John since the 1500s, also informal for any Scottish soldier from more or less the same time. Jock was also slang for...
To manoeuvre in such a way as to gain an advantage, a phrase borrowed from horseracing and used in this figurative sense since the late 18th/early 19t...
Sports undergarment for men since the latter half of the 19th century, an American invention, derives from the slang meaning of Jock for penis. See al...
Rhyming slang for 'shocker' meaning a mistake or error of some kind. Joe Cocker/shocker, dates from the late 20th/early 21st century, and derives from...