See Joan's as good as my lady in the dark in All languages combined, or Wiktionary
Download JSON data for Joan's as good as my lady in the dark meaning in English (6.9kB)
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"etymology_text": "From or alongside the use of Joan as a sexually available member of the lower classes found in related expressions such as He is our Ladies Chaplaine, but serves Ione and Joan's as good as this French lady. Ultimately a calque of Latin and Ancient Greek expressions such as πᾶσα γυνὲ τοῦ λύχνου ἀρθέντος ἡ αὐτή ἐστι (pâsa gunè toû lúkhnou arthéntos hē autḗ esti) and sublata enim lucerna quaevis mulier cuiusvis est similis (“all women are the same when the lamp is removed”), which Plutarch considered only accurate as an excuse to escape lecherous and adulterous men but which Erasmus considered a description of how all women would indulge themselves so long as witnesses and punishment could be avoided.",
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"ref": "1611, John Davies, \"Vpon Englishe Prouerbs\", Scourge of Folly, §386",
"text": "‘Ioan in the darke is as good as my lady:’\nNay, perhapps better, such ladies there may bee."
},
{
"ref": "1623, James Mabbe, The Rogue, page 262",
"text": "...in the darke, all Cats are blacke, and Jone is as faire as my Lady...",
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{
"ref": "1931, Arthur Melville Clark, Thomas Heywood, page 12",
"text": "...when Henslowe notes Heywood's next play he has a little more respect for him; for, although the total was again but five pounds, three pounds on February 10, 1598/9 and the rest two days later, the dramatist on both occasions is Mr. Heywood. The only surviving fragment of the piece, ‘Jonne as good as my ladey’, may be a song in Γυναικεῖον with the burden 'What care I how faire she bee...",
"type": "quotation"
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"ref": "1995, Anthony Fletcher, Gender, Sex, and Subordination in England 1500–1800, page 18",
"text": "The current proverb ‘In the dark Joan is as good as my lady’ carried no moral overtones; it merely reflected upon male anxieties that social superiority might bring some kind of special benefits in terms of the quality of sexual pleasure. A countryman, so the story went, who had given a large sum to have sex with a lady was overheard on his way home from behind a hedge moaning about his wasted money with the line that his Joan at home was as good as the lady had turned out.",
"type": "quotation"
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{
"ref": "2014, Antonia Senior, Treason’s Daughter, page 169",
"text": "A wife. But what wife and when? Pretty, yes, but godly and modest. He remembers something Taffy said once: ‘A homely Joan is as good as a lady when the lights are out.’ Aye, Taf, he thinks, but best to marry one whose face you can worship. An image of Lucy Tompkins pops unbidden into his mind.",
"type": "quotation"
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"Synonym of all cats are grey in the dark: Sex is enjoyable regardless of the status, physical attractiveness, or social station of one's partner."
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"(potentially vulgar and offensive, archaic) Synonym of all cats are grey in the dark: Sex is enjoyable regardless of the status, physical attractiveness, or social station of one's partner."
],
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"ref": "1611, John Davies, \"Vpon Englishe Prouerbs\", Scourge of Folly, §386",
"text": "‘Ioan in the darke is as good as my lady:’\nNay, perhapps better, such ladies there may bee."
},
{
"ref": "1623, James Mabbe, The Rogue, page 262",
"text": "...in the darke, all Cats are blacke, and Jone is as faire as my Lady...",
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{
"ref": "1931, Arthur Melville Clark, Thomas Heywood, page 12",
"text": "...when Henslowe notes Heywood's next play he has a little more respect for him; for, although the total was again but five pounds, three pounds on February 10, 1598/9 and the rest two days later, the dramatist on both occasions is Mr. Heywood. The only surviving fragment of the piece, ‘Jonne as good as my ladey’, may be a song in Γυναικεῖον with the burden 'What care I how faire she bee...",
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"ref": "1995, Anthony Fletcher, Gender, Sex, and Subordination in England 1500–1800, page 18",
"text": "The current proverb ‘In the dark Joan is as good as my lady’ carried no moral overtones; it merely reflected upon male anxieties that social superiority might bring some kind of special benefits in terms of the quality of sexual pleasure. A countryman, so the story went, who had given a large sum to have sex with a lady was overheard on his way home from behind a hedge moaning about his wasted money with the line that his Joan at home was as good as the lady had turned out.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2014, Antonia Senior, Treason’s Daughter, page 169",
"text": "A wife. But what wife and when? Pretty, yes, but godly and modest. He remembers something Taffy said once: ‘A homely Joan is as good as a lady when the lights are out.’ Aye, Taf, he thinks, but best to marry one whose face you can worship. An image of Lucy Tompkins pops unbidden into his mind.",
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"Synonym of all cats are grey in the dark: Sex is enjoyable regardless of the status, physical attractiveness, or social station of one's partner."
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"(potentially vulgar and offensive, archaic) Synonym of all cats are grey in the dark: Sex is enjoyable regardless of the status, physical attractiveness, or social station of one's partner."
],
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"word": "Joan's as good as my lady in the dark"
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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-01 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 using wiktextract (f4fd8c9 and c9440ce). 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.
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