| 释义 |
John|dʒɒn|
Forms 2–6 Iohan, 3–5 Ion, 4 Ioan, Ioon, 4–6 Ihon, 4–7 Iohn, 5 Ione, 6 Iohne, 7– John.
[= OF. Jehan, F. Jean:—L. Joannes (later Johannes), a. Gr. Ἰωάννης, ad. Heb. yōḥānān, in full y'hōḥānān Johanan, or Jehohanan, explained as ‘Jah (or Jahveh) is gracious’.]
1. a. A masculine Christian name, that of John the Baptist and John the Evangelist; hence, from early ME. times one of the commonest in England. b. Also used as a representative proper name for a footman, butler, waiter, messenger, or the like, and in other ways: see quots., and cf. Jack, Johnny (of which the transferred use is much more marked).
[c1160Hatton Gosp. John i. 6 Man wæs fram gode asend þæs name wæs Iohannes.] c1175Lamb. Hom. 127 He is þet soðe lomb alswa Sancte Iohan þe baptist cweð. c1200Ormin 707 Forr att te come off Sannt Iohan Bigann all ure blisse. Ibid. 714 Sannt Iohan Bapptisste comm Biforenn Cristess come. a1225Ancr. R. 78 Þæt was sein Iohan, in his moder wombe. Ibid. 106 He iseih his deorewurðe moder teares, & sein Iohannes euangelistes, & te oðre Maries. c1275Passion our Lord 223 in O.E. Misc. 43 Ion hedde enne mantel of cendal hym abute. 1297R. Glouc. 7147 Seint Ion þe ewangelist. Ibid. 9924 Richard..ȝef is broþer Ion [rime anon] Þe erldom of gloucestre. Ibid. 11751 Sir Ion le fiz Ion. a1300Cursor M. 167 (Cott.) Sithen o þe baptist Iohan [Fairf. Ioan, Gött. iohn, Trin. Ion] þat Iesu baptist in flum Iordan. Ibid. 171 Siþen o Ions [v.rr. Iones, ionis] baptisyng. 1377Langl. P. Pl. B. v. 415 Al þat euere Marke made Mathew, Iohn [1393 C. viii. 24 Iohan] and Lucas. c1380Wyclif Serm. Sel. Wks. I. 325 On Seint Ihones day. Ibid., Ioon cam to blisse wiþouten killing. c1440Promp. Parv. 264/2 Ion, propyr name (S. Ione, P. Iohn), Johannes. 1549Latimer 3rd Serm. bef. Edw. VI (Arb.) 77 Some saye, you are Iohan Baptiste.
b.1633B. Jonson Tale Tub iv. ii, All constables are truly Johns for the King, Whate'er their names, be they Tony or Roger. 1838P. Hawker Diary (1893) II. 141, I knocked down 16 geese and sacked ‘every man John’ of them. 1848Thackeray Bk. Snobs ii, Suddenly..her Majesty's own crimson footmen, with epaulets and black plushes, came in. It was pitiable to see the other poor Johns slink off at this arrival! 1883J. P. Groves Fr. Cadet to Captain ii. 15 My ignorance of the manners and customs of Sandhurst cadets prevented my knowing that ‘John’ was a generic title applied to all first-termers.
c. A policeman; (less commonly) a detective. In full, johndarm |ˈdʒɒndɑːm| [ad. F. gendarme]. Also with suffixed quasi-surname, as John Dunn (Austral.), John Hop (Austral. and N.Z.), John Law (U.S.). Cf. jonnop. [Austral., N.Z., and U.S. john perh. shortened directly from John Hop (rhyming slang for cop n.5) and John Law.] depreciatory.
1633[sense 1 b]. 1858S. A. Hammett Piney Woods Tavern vi. 63 He larnt that time to let the John Darmes hunt thar own varmint. 1901Westm. Gaz. 18 Sept. 8/2 ‘George Johns are sure to visit the old girl to see if anyone has got to her... Brake the cab then shift it again as the John will be sure to tell the porter of that.’.. Detective-sergeant Stevens said the word ‘Johns’ on the paper signified ‘detectives’. 1905Munsey's Mag. July 466/2 Somebody hollers that the johndarms are coming. 1906E. Dyson Fact'ry 'Ands viii. 99 'Twas near two hours afore I see His Whiskers steamin' back, 'n' he had er John in tow... Ther policeman was fer me. 1907J. London in Cosmopolitan May 17/2 A lot of my brother hoboes had been gathered in by John Law. 1918Chrons. N.Z.E.F. 19 July 280 In view of the fact that the camp ‘John Hops’ were off duty. Ibid. 22 Nov. 206 ‘Never mind about that,’ said the John—and dumped him in the cell. 1925[see fink n.2]. c1926‘Mixer’ Transport Workers' Song Bk. 94 'Tis us..The wily ‘John Hop’ loves to track. 1933Bulletin (Sydney) 31 May 12/3 Even on beat duty a John Hop..can cogitate. 1939H. Hodge Cab, Sir? xv. 222 A policeman is the usual cockney ‘Grass’... Or sometimes ‘Johndarm’—thus proving we know French. 1940R. Chandler Farewell, my Lovely xxxix. 302 ‘The johns tied me to it?’ ‘I don't know.’ 1941Baker Dict. Austral. Slang 39 John Dunns, policemen. 1941W. G. Davis Phenomena in Crime xix. 254 Bogies, busies, gendarmes, johns... Detectives. 1961P. White Riders in Chariot xi. 380 ‘I'll fetch the johns in the mornin'!’ she shrieked. ‘Layin' into a white woman!’ 1965G. McInnes Road to Gundagai xi. 187 Then we would climb the steps, leaving our bicycles chained to a lamp post (courtesy of John Hops). 1965M. Shadbolt Among Cinders xxi. 202 Bill Halloran... He's the local john. 1968K. Weatherly Roo Shooter 23, I didn't tell the John to sweep your cell out.
d. (With lower-case initial.) A lavatory, water-closet. slang (chiefly U.S.).
[1735Harvard Laws in W. Bentinck-Smith Harvard Bk. (1953) 146 No freshman shall mingo against the College wall or go into the fellows' cuzjohn.] 1932Amer. Speech VII. 333 John, johnny, a lavatory. 1946‘J. Evans’ Halo in Blood xvi. 181, I..made a brief visit to the john. 1959C. MacInnes Absolute Beginners 54 ‘You poor old bastard,’ I said to the Hoplite, as he sat there on my john. 1972Last Whole Earth Catalog (Portola Inst.) 247/3 Every time you take a dump or a leak in a standard john, you flush five gallons of water out with your piddle. 1973Black World June 19 They gave me my Status Symbol The key to the white Locked John.
e. In full, John Chinaman. A Chinaman; the Chinese collectively. depreciatory.
1818B. Hall Acct. Voy. Corea ii. 92 This interpreter is called ‘John’ by all the parties. 1826Ibid. (rev. ed.) i. 37 The seamen..not caring whether John Chinaman, as they called him, understood them or not. 1834Amer. Railroad Jrnl. III. 189/1 They are required to..ascertain the height of John Chinaman in a breath. 1853Alta California (San Francisco) 20 Apr. 2/2 The May Adams brought 118 ‘Johns’ from the terrestrial kindgom of heaven. 1854C. A. Corbyn Sydney Revels of Bacchus, Cupid & Momus 125 They came to the determination of giving wretched John Chinaman such a dose that prussic acid is fool to it. They committed John for trial at the Quarter Sessions. 1858Brit. Colonist (Victoria, B.C.) 27 Dec. 4/3 The Johns had a high time, drinking brandy and eating fried hog. 1865Dunedin Punch 16 Sept. 119 John Chinaman is to immigrate here. 1869J. R. Browne Adv. Apache Country 308 John Chinamen, with long tails rolled up on the backs of their heads, running distractedly through the crowd in search of their lost bundles. 1872[see Chinaman 2]. 1921R. Watson Spoilers of Valley 310 John always was a better truck farmer anyway. 1933Bulletin (Sydney) 8 Mar. 10 Old John Chinaman, patient, hardworking, scrupulously honest. 1970Brewer's Dict. Phr. & Fable (rev. ed.) 591/2 John Chinaman, a Chinaman or the Chinese as a people.
f. A ponce; the client of a prostitute. slang (orig. U.S.).
a1911D. G. Phillips Susan Lenox (1917) II. vi. 154 A John's a sucker—a fellow that keeps a girl. 1928[see creep v. 5 b]. 1953W. Burroughs Junkie (1972) ii. 27 Mary was describing the techniques she used to get money from the ‘Johns’ who formed her principal source of revenue. 1967M. M. Glatt et al. Drug Scene 117 John, prostitute's customer. 1972New York 24 Apr. 38/3 Many working girls, when they are new in the city, spend at least a few months with a madam to meet the better johns. 1973Times 22 Mar. 8/7 The customers (Johns or tricks) are the usual solitary, bored, out-of-town..men.
g. Abbrev. of John Thomas (b).
1934Neuphilol. Mitt. XXXV. 130 Here [at public-school] his first linguistic experience will be with mumfordish and swear-words (e.g...john ‘penis’..). 1948D. Ballantyne Cunninghams ii. xvi. 241 How often did the nurse find him with his old john lying limply? 1972C. Murry Private View i. 33 The tip of old John brushed against the inside of my thigh.
†2. A plant: old name for a variety of pink; usually sweet John, q.v. Obs.
1572Plat Floures Philos. Addr. to Rdr., The Iohn so sweete in shewe and smell, distincte by colours twaine, Aboute the borders of their beds in seemelie sighte remaine. 1597Gerarde Herbal ii. clxxiv. 478 Of Sweete Iohns, and Sweete Williams. Armeria alba, White Iohns. Armeria rubra, Red Iohns.
†3. Sir John: a familiar or contemptuous appellation for a priest: from sir as rendering L. dominus at the Universities. Cf. also mess John. Sir John Lack-latin: see Lack-latin A. Obs.
c1386Chaucer Nun's Pr. Prol. 44 Com neer thou preest, com hyder thou sir Iohn. 1553Pilkington in Strype Eccl. Mem. (1721) III. i. xii. 114 Who is meeter for any of these businesses than Sir Iohn Lack-latin? 1721Ibid. xxxiii. 253 Instead of a faithful and painful teacher, they hire a Sir Iohn, which hath better skill in playing at tables, or in keeping of a garden, than in God's word. 1594? Greene Selimus Wks. 1881–3 XIV. 264 But our Sir Iohn beshrew thy hart, For thou hast ioynd vs, we cannot part. 1653Baxter Worc. Petit. Def. 30 Most would have a Masse-Priest or Reading Sir John, that would humour them for a little.
4. Prefixed to another word, so as to form a name or nickname, or used in a phrase with specific sense. Such are John Blunt (cf. Jack n.1 36), John Cheese; John-a-dogs, ? a dog-whipper; John-a-dreams, a dreamy fellow; one occupied in idle meditation; John-a-droyne (?); John-a-nods, one who is nodding, or not quite awake; John Barleycorn: see barley-corn 1 b; John Birch Society (see Bircher); hence John Bircher = Bircher; John boat (also Jon boat) U.S., a small, flat-bottomed boat for use principally on inland waterways; John Citizen, the ordinary man (esp. considered as a member of the community); John Collins, a Collins (see Collins2) made with a base of gin or whisky; a Tom Collins; John Company, a humorous appellation of the East India Company, taken over from the name Jan Kompanie, by which the Dutch E.I.C., and subsequently the Dutch government, are known to natives in the East: see quot. 1785; John Doe, (a) (Eng. and U.S. Law), the name given to the fictitious lessee of the plaintiff, in the (now obsolete) mixed action of ejectment, the fictitious defendant being called Richard Roe; (b) name given to an ordinary or typical citizen (see also quot. 1942); John Down, a Newfoundland name for the fulmar; John Dringle (?); John-go-to-bed-at-noon, a popular name for the Goat's-beard, Tragopogon pratensis (also simply go-to-bed-at-noon: see go v. VIII.), or other flowers which close about midday, as the Pimpernel and the Star-of-Bethlehem; John Hancock U.S. colloq., a signature; John Henry U.S. local slang = prec.; † John-hold-my-staff, † John-of-all-trades, † John-out-of-office = corresp. phrases with Jack (Jack n.1 37); John Innes (compost), one of a group of composts prepared according to formulæ developed at the John Innes Horticultural Institution in the late 1930s; John Q. Public U.S. colloq., the general public, or a member of this; John Roscoe, a gun (U.S. slang); see also roscoe; John Scott, an artificial fly: = Jock Scott; John Thomas, (a) a generic name for a livery servant; (b) slang, the penis; John Thomson's man, Sc. [origin lost: Jamieson suggested Joan Thomson's man, but this is not the form exemplified], a proverbial appellation for a man who is guided by his wife; † John Trot, a man of slow or uncultured intellect, a bumpkin, a clown. For cheap John, Poor John, etc., see the other words.
1613Jackson Creed ii. xxviii. §5 Never to swerve from the beadle of beggars or *John-a-dogs his determinations and resolutions in any point of logic, philosophy, or metaphysics.
1602Shakes. Ham. ii. ii. 594, I, a dull and muddy-metled Rascal, peake Like *Iohn a-dreames. 1876Henley Bk. Verses (1888) 91 Kate-a-Whimsies, John-a-Dreams, Still debating, still delay.
1562J. Heywood Prov. & Epigr. (1867) 214 Hogis head in hogstowne is no *Iohn a droyne. 1596Nashe Saffron Walden P j b, That poor Iohn a Droynes his man,..a great big-boand thresher.
1603Harsnet Pop. Impost. xxiii. 160 Hee would say The Apostle wrote like a good plaine *Iohn a Nods. 1608R. Armin Nest Ninn. (1880) 57 His name is Iohn,..but neither Iohn a nods, nor Iohn a Dreames.
1961*John Bircher [see Bircher]. 1961Listener 20 Apr. 684/1 The patriots of the right—and they seem to be mushrooming belligerent societies round the country, as witness the sudden, and alarmingly widespread, rise of the John Birch Society. 1963Ibid. 21 Feb. 350/2 The line taken by the interviewer, whose questions might have been drafted by the John Birch Society, so puritanical did they sound. 1967Boston Sunday Herald 30 Apr. i. 1/1 A strange hybrid bird is hovering..over the town of Lincoln. Is it a dove? Is it a hawk? No, it's a John Bircher who may be somebody's pigeon. 1973W. McCarthy Detail iii. 201 We have covered every John Bircher and nut that has sworn to kill the President.
1508Dunbar Tua mariit wemen 142 For all the buddis of *Iohne Blunt, quhen he abone clymis.
1905N.Y. Even. Post (Sat. Suppl.) 2 Sept. 3/1 Two men came down the Mississippi in an Illinois *Jon-boat, paddling slowly with rough-whittled boards. 1917H. Kephart Camping & Woodcraft II. 134 We..hit upon what we conceived to be a brilliant scheme for transporting a gallon of whiskey inconspicuously in our John-boat. 1921Rudder Feb. 7 Their scope of understanding..ranges from the 150-foot schooner to the ten-foot ‘john boat’. 1965A. J. McClane Standard Fishing Encycl. 441/2 The original john boat..was made of clear pine boards 20 feet long and 18 inches wide.
a1568R. Ascham Scholem. i. (Arb.) 54 If thou be thrall to none of theise, Away good Peek goos, hens *Iohn Cheese.
1924H. H. Curran (title) *John Citizen's job. 1931T. E. Gregory in W. Rose Outl. Mod. Knowl. 626 If John Citizen buys a house out of his own savings, [etc.]. 1937Evening News 12 Mar. 8/1 No Government department has yet thought of issuing a pamphlet extolling the virtues of John Citizen, who, as taxpayer, every year takes a stronger weight and never complains. 1958Daily Tel. 8 Aug. 11/4 When all is quiet John Citizen says what a great humanitarian he is. 1965Mrs. L. B. Johnson White House Diary 13 July (1970) 296, I would depend upon that man if I were John Citizen looking on from my living room.
1865Australasian 25 Feb. 8/7 That most angelic of drinks for a hot climate—a *John Collins... Take a bottle of sodawater, a wineglassful of gin, a lump of sugar, a piece of ice, with a slice of lemon—mix well together. 1913R. Brooke Let. 3 Aug. in Coll. Poems (1918) p. lxxxvi, I believe I could do a deal in Real Estate,..over a John Collins, with a clean-shaven Yankee. 1928T. M. Healy Lett. & Leaders I. x. 142 Two barmen who..served me with a ‘John Collins’ [in U.S.]. 1962John Collins [see Collins2].
[1785tr. Sparrmann's Voy. Cape G. Hope, etc. x. II. 21 The ignorant Hottentots and Indians not having been able to form any idea of the Dutch East-India Company,..the Dutch from the very beginning in India, politically gave out the company for one individual powerful prince, by the christian name of Jan or John... On this account I ordered my interpreter to say farther, that we were the children of Jan Company, who had sent us out to view this country.] 1808Life Ld. Minto in India (1880) 184 (Y.) Preparations to save *Johnny Company's cash. 1832Marryat N. Forster xli. (Rtldg.) 223 John Company will some day find out the truth. 1886Mrs. E. Lynn Linton Paston Carew ii, He was offered a position in India, in the service of John Company, under whose flag, as we know, the pagoda-tree was worth shaking.
1768Blackstone Comm. III. xviii. 274 The security here spoken of..is at present become a mere form: and *John Doe and Richard Roe are always returned as the standing pledges for this purpose. [1825‘O'Hara Family’ (title) Tales, containing..John Doe.] 1841S. Warren Ten Thousand a Year viii, John Doe further says that one Richard Roe (who calls himself—‘a Casual Ejector’) came and turned him out, and so John Doe brings his action against Richard Roe. 1852Dickens Bleak Ho. (1853) xx. 195 It is reported at the public offices that his father was John Doe. 1882Farrar Early Chr. II. 506 So common was it [the name Gaius] that it was selected in the Roman law-books to serve the familiar purpose of John Doe and Richard Roe in our own legal formularies. 1900(title) The bridge manual..by John Doe [pseudonym of Francis Reginald Roe]. 1928M. H. Weseen Crowell's Dict. Eng. Gram. 355 John Doe. Properly used in legal actions as the name of a fictitious plaintiff. Richard Roe is the corresponding name of a fictitious defendant. By extension these names are used loosely as substitutes for real names in other affairs. 1932John Doe [see Jones 1]. 1935M. M. Atwater Murder in Midsummer xxi. 196 Serve on them one of the John Doe warrants with which you have been provided. 1938S. Robertson in For Men Only Feb. 50 (heading) John Doe{ddd}crosses the Styx. 1940L. E. Frailey How to write Better Business Lett. ii. 14 You start thinking: ‘Here's a salesman, John Doe.’ 1941N.Y. Times 13 Mar. 25/2 (title) Meet John Doe, screen play by Robert Riskin... ‘John Doe’..Gary Cooper. 1942Berrey & Van den Bark Amer. Thes. Slang §442/3 One whose name is not known,.. Joe Doe, Joe Zilch, John Doe, John Henry, John Smith. 1957B. & C. Evans Dict. Contemp. Amer. Usage 259/2 John Doe is a fictitious person in legal proceedings, usually the plaintiff. The corresponding fictitious defendant is Richard Roe. 1972N.Y. Law Jrnl. 31 Oct. 15/4 USA v. Jose Valenzuela-Correa,..John Doe. 1973Washington Post 18 Apr. iii. 1/8 They didn't include any small guys struggling down here. I think they should have had some John Doe on there.
1852Arctic Miscellanies 10 On the banks of Newfoundland, where this bird is known by the name of ‘*John Down’, it attends the fishing vessels for the offal of the cod fish. 1893A. Newton Dict. Birds ii. 471 John-Down, the name given to the Fulmar by Newfoundland fishermen. 1917T. G. Pearson Birds of America I. 80 Fulmar. Fulmarus glacialis glacialis... [Also called] Molly Hawk; John Down; Sea Horse. 1957W. L. McAtee Folk-Names Canad. Birds 4 Fulmar... John Down (Sailor's name, significance unknown. Nfld.).
15971st Pt. Return fr. Parnass. iii. i. 918 Everie *Iohn Dringle can make a booke in the commendacions of temperance againste the seven deadlie sinns.
1758Pultney in Phil. Trans. L. 508 Our country people long since called it *John-go-to-bed-at-noon. 1897Willis Flow. Plants II. 373 The flower-heads..close up at midday, whence its common name of ‘John-go-to-bed-at-noon’.
[1846Holmes in R. W. Griswold Passages from Corr. (1898) 221 Avoiding..the pretentious boldness of *John Hancock..I subscribe myself Yours very truly.] 1903Ade People you Know 150 After he got through filling in the Blank Spaces with his John Hancock, he didn't have a Window to hoist or a Fence to lean on. 1937N. & Q. 6 Mar. 178/1 There is also a popular phrase for signature, ‘John Hancock’, as in, ‘Go ahead. Put down your John Hancock.’ 1937Greensboro (N. Carolina) News 23 Dec., Lindberg's John Hancock is worth ten to twenty-five dollars on the market. 1972Listener 7 Dec. 784/1 Even today an American handing you a contract is apt to say: ‘And now if you will just give us your John Hancock.’
1914Dialect Notes IV. 109 *John Henry or John Hancock, autograph. 1951Publ. Amer. Dial. Soc. xv. 56 Put your John Henry on that. 1974T. Barling Shooter Man iii. 20 Sign your John Henry there... Your name is Balkin. You'd better get used to it.
168215 Comf. Matrimony vi. 47 The poor Gentleman at home is like *John Hold-my-staff, she must Rule, Govern, Insult, Brawl.
1939Ann. Rep. John Innes Hort. Inst. 1938 XXIX. 17 A great many enquiries about the *John Innes composts have been received. The John Innes Base Fertiliser is now being widely used. 1939Lawrence & Newell Seed & Potting Composts 9 These composts are the outcome of experiments to meet the practical needs of cultivation at the John Innes Horticultural Institution. Ibid. 10 In the John Innes composts the gardener has soil mixtures which, properly used, always give excellent results. 1951Good Housek. Home Encycl. 94/2 The compost for..practically all house plants should be that known as ‘John Innes’. 1959Listener 12 Nov. 850/1 The standard John Innes compost is excellent. 1970Nature 25 July 377/1 These results show that fertilizer is crucial for satisfactory growth, particularly slow acting types such as John Innes base. 1973Country Life 29 Mar. 864/3 Acidanthera corms are being potted..in 7 or 8 in. pots of John Innes No. 2 compost.
1639Mayne City Match ii. v, You mungrel, you *John of all Trades. 1672R. Wild Declar. Lib. Consc. 3 A Good King..who sees no reason for putting down Haberdashers, and Johns of all Trades.
1563Foxe A. & M. (1583) 2113 Who now (God be thanked) is *Iohn out of office, and glad of his Neighbours good will.
1937N. & Q. 6 Mar. 177/2 ‘John Citizen’..is not so frequent in American usage as ‘*John Q. Public’... It is probably a play on the name of an early president, John Q(uincy) Adams. 1938S. Chase Tyranny of Words xiv. 175 There is no ‘public’... Calling it ‘John Q. Public’ does not help. 1972M. Kaye Lively Game of Death ix. 49 My main concern at that moment was to play John Q. Public by phoning the cops.
1938D. Runyon Furthermore iii. 54 The joke is, I will not be asleep in the sack, and my hands will not be tied, and in each of my hands I will have a *John Roscoe, so..I pop out blasting away. 1973A. S. Neill Neill! Neill! Orange Peel! (rev. ed.) ii. 130 The USA.., where anyone can carry a gun, or, to be topical, should I say a Betsy or a John Roscoe?
1867F. Francis Angling x. (1880) 375 *John Scott..is a very tasty-looking fly.
1500–20Dunbar Poems lxii. 4 God gif ȝe war *Johne Thomsounis man. 1637R. Monro Exp. Scots Regim. ii. 30 Some will alleage, he was Iohn Thomsons man. I answer, it was all one, if shee was good: for all stories esteeme them happie, that can live together man and wife, without contention. 1816Scott Old Mort. xxxviii, ‘The deil's in the wife!’ said Cuddie; ‘d'ye think I am to be John Tamson's man, and maistered by women a' the days o' my life?’
1712Steele Spect. Nos. 296 and 314 [Letters signed] *John Trott. 1753Foote Eng. in Paris Epil., The merest John Trot in a week you shall zee Bien poli, bien frizé, tout à fait un Marquis. 1762Colman Mus. Lady ii. i, Our travelling gentry..return from the tour of Europe as mere English boors as they went—John Trot still.
1879–80Pearl (1970) 76 As around her fair form I a firm hold took, And *John Thomas I silently buried. 1928D. H. Lawrence Lady Chatterley xiv. 253 ‘John Thomas! John Thomas!’ and she quickly kissed the soft penis. 1957L. Durrell Justine 249 She had neatly tied his dresstie to his John Thomas, a perfect bow. 1972Times Lit. Suppl. 7 July 783/3 The grotesquely coy accounts of sex, during which Tony tells us that his ‘John Thomas’ was ‘up and raring to go’.
5. St. John's, in composition. † St. John's berry, the barberry. St. John's bread, the fruit of the carob-tree (see carob 1); also the tree itself. † St. John's disease, † St. John's evil, a name for epilepsy. † St. John's grass = St. John's-wort. † St. John's seal, the plant Solomon's Seal. St. ˈJohn's-wort, the common English name for plants of the genus hypericum.
1561Hollybush Hom. Apoth. 22 b, *S. Ihons berries called in Latine Berberis.
1591Percivall Sp. Dict., Algarrova, Carobes, or *S. Iohns bread. 1597Gerarde Herbal iii. lxxv. 1241 This of some is called S. Iohns bread, and thought to be that which is translated Locusts, whereon S. Iohn did feed. 1706Phillips, St. John's Bread, a kind of Shrub. 1883Harper's Mag. Sept. 622/2 The St.-John's-bread-tree, which does not bear until seventy years of age.
1616Surfl. & Markh. Country Farme 42 To preserue one from the Falling sicknesse, otherwise called *S. Iohns disease.
1607Topsell Four-f. Beasts (1658) 339 Against the falling sickness, called *Saint Johns-evill.
1538Turner Libellus B j b, Hypericon..uulgus appellat *Saynt Iohns gyrs. 1597Gerarde Herbal ii. cl. §3. 433 S. Iohns woort, or S. Iohns grasse.
1567J. Maplet Gr. Forest 61 *Saint Iohnes seale, of Ruellius Salomons seale: of Monardus, Saint Maries seale.
14..Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 590/31 Iperica, *seynt Iohnys worte. 1551Turner Herbal i. E iij, Great saint Iohnes wurte. Ibid., A kynde of hyperici, called in englishe saint Iohns grass, or saynt Iohns wurt. 1625K. Long tr. Barclay's Argenis i. ii. 4 Asswaging the heat with Oyle extracted from St. John's-woort. 1794Martyn Rousseau's Bot. xxv. 373 Upright St. John's Wort is an elegant species growing in woods and heaths. 1861Delamer Fl. Gard. 102 The large St. John's Wort..has a very showy flower, almost filled with a silky tasselled tuft of stamens with red anthers... Tutsan is a hardy shrubby St. John's Wort. |