A Dictionary of Cont..

citement resembling intoxication (She has those
crying jugs about once a month). These latter
meanings are still listed as slang in the dictionaries
but the word is so widely used now, especially
in the last sense, with no intentilon of
being quaint or original or amusing that it probably
ought to be accepted as standard.
Load in this sense, however (Brother, has he
got a load on), is still slang. As also in the sense
of take a good look at (Get a load of this:) and,
in the participle, to be rich (He’s loaded; if that
guy dropped a ten dollar bill it wouldn’t be
worth his time to pick it up).
jail delivery. In the United States a jail delivery
is a deliverance of imprisoned persons by force,
either a rescue or a breaking out (A da&g attempt
at a jail delivery at Pontiac Reformatory
was thwarted this morning). In England the
phrase means the clearing of a jail of pris:oners
by bringing them to trial.
Japanese. The singular and the plural are both
Japanese. At one time this word had a distinct
plural, as seen in the following sentence, written
in 1693: the Japaneses prepare tea quite
otherwise than is done in Europe. This word is
now obsolete and the one form Japanese is used
for both the singular and the plural, as in one
Japanese and three Japanese. The shortened
form Jap is derogatory and should not be
used.
jargon. See argot; vernacular.
jeer. As a transitive verb jeer is now obsol’ete in
England; the English always jeer at someone
or something. American usage retains the old
transitive form (They jeered the speaker as soon
as he begun to talk) and employs the intransitive
as well (They jeered at Columbus, #didn’t
they?).
Jehoshaphat. The layman has little occasion to
refer to the son of Asa who removed the remnant
of the Sodomites but did not take away
the high places and whose ships went not to
Ophir, but if he must allude to him, the name
is Jehoshaphat not Jehosaphat.
jerrymander. See gerrymander.
jetsam. See flotsam.
Jew. See Hebrew.
Jewess. See Negress.
Jew’s-harp (Jews’ harp); juice harp. For over four
hundred years the small lyre-shaped musical
instrument with an elastic steel tongue which
is held between the jaws and plucked, the tone
being changed by varying the position of the
mouth, has been connected in English with the
Jews. It was called a Jew’s trump or Jews’ trump
before it was called a Jew’s harp or Jews’ harp
but no one knows why. The Oxford English
Dictionary characterizes all attempts to derive
the first element from jaws or from the French
jeu as “baseless and inept.” Whether any derogation
was originally intended is not known but
it is apparently believed that some might now
be felt, for the instrument is invariably referred
to in radio and television programs as a juice
harp. Considering the drooling that often accompanies
amateur performances on the thing,
this is a fairly ingenious emendation, and1 con-
259
. . .
IO*
sidering the fact that it is only on radio and
television programs that children hear of the
instrument at all any more, the new name is
probably better established among the young
than the old name and one more word has
undergone one more preposterous change.
jimmy; jemmy. The American name for a short
crowbar used to effect burglarious entrance is
a jimmy. The English name is iemmy. Both
forms are familiar diminutives of james-(Mayor
Jimmy Walker. 0 Jemmv Thomson. Jemmv
Thor&on, 0). How the name got applied tb
the instrument nobody knows.
jingo. The plural is jingoes.
jiuni; jinn. If one must employ Arabic in writing
an English sentence, the grammar should be
correct. The word for those spirits in Mohammedan
mythology which are lower than the
angels and capable of appearing in human and
animal form is in the plural jinn, in the singular
jinni. How this iinn ever escaued from his bot-
;le is incorrect..It should haie bken How this
jinni. . . .
job; position; situation; place. The standard meaning
of job is a piece of work. an individual uiece
of work done in the routine.of one’s occupation
or trade (How much for the job? We pay by
the job. Let’s get the job done. Job printing).
In American usage a situation or post of employment
is also called a job (Hey mom, I got
the job). In America the word is also applied
to an affair, matter, occurrence, or state of
affairs (Well, we’ve got to make the best of a
bud job). The apdication of the word to a
theft- or- robbery-or any criminal deed (The
gang pulled a job in Madison and were over the
Illinois line before daybreak) is slang.
Position is usually applied to any post of
employment above manual labor (His position
in Clark’s grocery didn’t offer much hope of
getting rich quick. This is a good position for
the right man. Position wanted. Will travel).
Place and situation are used mainly today in
regard to positions or jobs that are being sought
(situation wanted). Place is now generally restricted
to domestic employment, especially of
a female (She had a good place with a Winnetka
family for twenty years).
Job’s comforter. Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad
the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite are
known now to very few and the term Job’s
comforter for one who under the guise of offering
consolation only adds to his victim’s distress
is now an empty phrase.
John Doe; Richard Roe. John Doe is a fictitious
personage in legal proceedings, usually the
plaintiff. The corresponding fictitious defendant
is Richard Roe. Their female counterparts are
Jane Doe and Mary Roe who also serve in
warrants, when necessary, as John and Richard’s
respective spouses.
join together. Although join means to bring or
put together, join together is too solidly established
as an emphatic phrase (What therefore
God hath joined together, let not man put asunder)
to be forbidden as a redundancy. Purists
have tried but usage has been on the other side.