"just-so story" meaning in All languages combined

See just-so story on Wiktionary

Noun [English]

IPA: /ˌd͡ʒʌstˈsəʊ ˌstɔːɹi/ [Received-Pronunciation], /ˌd͡ʒʌstˈsoʊ ˌstɔɹi/ [General-American] Audio: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-just-so story.wav Forms: just-so stories [plural]
Etymology: PIE word *swé From just so (“(almost) exactly or precisely like something”, adjective) + story, referring to the series of short stories called Just So Stories (collected in book form in 1902) by the English writer Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) which described how various animals acquired their distinctive characteristics, such as how the leopard got its spots. According to Kipling, the stories were so titled because they were intended to put his daughter Josephine (“Effie”) to sleep, “and you were not allowed to alter those by one single little word. They had to be told just so; or Effie would wake up and put back the missing sentence.” Etymology templates: {{PIE word|en|swé}} PIE word *swé, {{root|en|ine-pro|*h₂yew-|*weyd-}} Head templates: {{en-noun}} just-so story (plural just-so stories)
  1. A story which supposedly explains the beginning or early development of a current state of affairs; a myth, a pourquoi story. Translations (story which supposedly explains the beginning or early development of a current state of affairs — see also myth): tarina alkuperästä (Finnish), Räuberpistole [feminine] (German)
    Sense id: en-just-so_story-en-noun-q2AFCVE5 Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Entries with translation boxes, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries, Terms with Finnish translations, Terms with German translations, Terms with Persian translations Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 42 45 13 Disambiguation of Entries with translation boxes: 42 43 15 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 42 43 14 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 42 44 14 Disambiguation of Terms with Finnish translations: 41 38 21 Disambiguation of Terms with German translations: 42 38 20 Disambiguation of Terms with Persian translations: 43 37 21 Disambiguation of 'story which supposedly explains the beginning or early development of a current state of affairs — see also myth': 84 12 3
  2. (literature) A story, especially one for children, featuring animals as characters. Categories (topical): Literature, Rudyard Kipling Translations (story, especially one for children, featuring animals as characters): eläinsatu (Finnish)
    Sense id: en-just-so_story-en-noun-dbNbFtky Disambiguation of Rudyard Kipling: 34 49 17 Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Entries with translation boxes, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries, Terms with Finnish translations, Terms with German translations, Terms with Persian translations Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 42 45 13 Disambiguation of Entries with translation boxes: 42 43 15 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 42 43 14 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 42 44 14 Disambiguation of Terms with Finnish translations: 41 38 21 Disambiguation of Terms with German translations: 42 38 20 Disambiguation of Terms with Persian translations: 43 37 21 Topics: literature, media, publishing Disambiguation of 'story, especially one for children, featuring animals as characters': 9 90 1
  3. (social sciences, especially anthropology, philosophy, chiefly derogatory) An untestable explanation for something, such as a form of behaviour, a biological trait, or a cultural practice. Tags: derogatory, especially Categories (topical): Anthropology, Philosophy, Social sciences Translations (untestable explanation for something): selitys (Finnish), selittely (Finnish), داستان فقط به همین دلیل (Persian)
    Sense id: en-just-so_story-en-noun-LoXgCE2v Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Entries with translation boxes, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries, Terms with Finnish translations, Terms with German translations, Terms with Persian translations Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 42 45 13 Disambiguation of Entries with translation boxes: 42 43 15 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 42 43 14 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 42 44 14 Disambiguation of Terms with Finnish translations: 41 38 21 Disambiguation of Terms with German translations: 42 38 20 Disambiguation of Terms with Persian translations: 43 37 21 Topics: anthropology, human-sciences, philosophy, sciences, social-science, social-sciences Disambiguation of 'untestable explanation for something': 23 23 54

Inflected forms

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        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "Räuberpistole"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "story, especially one for children, featuring animals as characters",
      "word": "eläinsatu"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "untestable explanation for something",
      "word": "selitys"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "untestable explanation for something",
      "word": "selittely"
    },
    {
      "code": "fa",
      "lang": "Persian",
      "sense": "untestable explanation for something",
      "word": "داستان فقط به همین دلیل"
    }
  ],
  "wikipedia": [
    "Just So Stories",
    "Rudyard Kipling"
  ],
  "word": "just-so story"
}

Download raw JSONL data for just-so story meaning in All languages combined (5.8kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable All languages combined dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-12-15 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-12-04 using wiktextract (8a39820 and 4401a4c). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.