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558 entries found
Japanese (adj.)
1580s, Iapones; see Japan + -ese. As a noun from c. 1600; meaning "the Japanese language" is from 1828. As nouns Purchas has Iaponite (1613), Hakluyt Japonian. The destructive Japanese beetle attested from 1919, accidentally introduced in U.S. 1916 in larval stage in a shipment of Japanese iris.
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Japanesque (adj.)
1853, from Japan + -esque. In reference to aesthetics inspired by Japanese influence.
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jape (n.)
mid-14c., "a trick, a cheat;" late 14c. "a joke, a jest; a frivolous pastime, something of little importance" (late 14c.); see jape (v.). By 1400 also "depraved or immoral act; undignified behavior; bawdiness." Related: Japery "jesting, joking, raillery, mockery" (mid-14c.).
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jape (v.)
late 14c., "to trick, beguile, jilt; to mock," also "to act foolishly; to speak jokingly, jest pleasantly," perhaps from Old French japer "to howl, bawl, scream" (Modern French japper), of echoic origin, or from Old French gaber "to mock, deride." Phonetics suits the former, but sense the latter explanation. Chaucer has it in the full range of senses. Around mid-15c. the Middle English word took on a slang sense of "have sex with" and subsequently vanished from polite usage. It was revived in the benign sense of "say or do something in jest" by Scott, etc., and has limped along since in stilted prose. Related: Japed; japing.
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Japheth 

one of the three sons of Noah, from Late Latin Japheth, from Greek Iapheth, from Hebrew Yepheth, perhaps literally "enlargement," from causative form of the stem p-t-h "to be wide, spacious."

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Japhetic (adj.)
in reference to the presumed ancestral language of ancient Greek, Latin, and most of the modern European ones, 1730, from Biblical Japheth, a son of Noah, from whom the European peoples once were popularly supposed to have descended (as Middle Eastern Semitic from Shem; African Hamitic from Ham). Compare Aryan. Related: Japhetian (1752).
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Japlish (n.)
"unidiomatic English in Japan," 1960, from Japanese + English.
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japonica (n.)
"camellia," 1819, Modern Latin, fem. of japonicus "Japanese, of Japan," from Japon, a variant of Japan with a vowel closer to the Japanese name.
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jar (n.)

"simple earthen or glass cylindrical vessel," early 15c., possibly from rare Old French jarre "liquid measure smaller than a barrel," or more likely from Medieval Latin jarra (13c.) or Spanish or Catalan jarra (13c.), all ultimately from Arabic jarrah "earthen water vessel, ewer" (whence also Provençal jarra, Italian giarra), a general word in the 13c. Mediterranean sea-trade, which is from Persian jarrah "a jar, earthen water-vessel." Originally in English a large container used for importing olive oil.

In Britain in the 15th to 17th centuries, oil-lamps were overall not often used, because the oil was too expensive. Usage increased in the 17th century despite the expense. Olive oil was the most-often-used type of oil in the oil-lamps until the 18th century. The indications are good that no country or region exported more oil to Britain than southern Spain did in the 15th-17th centuries, with southern Italy coming second. ["English Words of Arabic Ancestry"]
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jar (v.)
1520s, "to make a brief, harsh, grating sound," often in reference to bird screeches; the word often is said to be echoic or imitative; compare jargon (n.), jay (n.), garrulous. Figurative sense of "have an unpleasant effect on" is from 1530s; that of "cause to vibrate or shake" is from 1560s. Related: Jarred; jarring. As a noun in this sense from 1540s.
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