"Joan" meaning in English

See Joan in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Proper name

IPA: /d͡ʒoʊn/ [General-American], /d͡ʒəʊn/ [Received-Pronunciation] Forms: Jo [alternative], Ione [alternative], Jone [alternative], Ioane [alternative], Joane [alternative]
Rhymes: -əʊn Etymology: A clipped or hypochoristic form of Joanna, from Latin Joanna, from Koine Greek Ἰωάννα (Iōánna), from Hebrew יוֹחָנָה (Yôḥānāh, literally “God is gracious”), the feminized form of יְהוֹחָנָן (Yəhōḥānān) which produced John and its many doublets. As a placeholder name, cf. similar use of John and Jack. Doublet of Ivana, Jana, Jane, Janice, Janis, Jean, Jeanne, Jen, Joanna, Joanne, Johanna, Juana, Shavonne, Sian, Siobhan, Shane, Shaun, Shauna, and Sheena. Etymology templates: {{der|en|la|Joanna}} Latin Joanna, {{der|en|grc-koi|Ἰωάννα}} Koine Greek Ἰωάννα (Iōánna), {{der|en|he|יוֹחָנָה|lit=God is gracious|tr=Yôḥānāh}} Hebrew יוֹחָנָה (Yôḥānāh, literally “God is gracious”), {{doublet|en|Ivana|Jana|Jane|Janice|Janis|Jean|Jeanne|Jen|Joanna|Joanne|Johanna|Juana|Shavonne|Sian|Siobhan|Shane|Shaun|Shauna|Sheena}} Doublet of Ivana, Jana, Jane, Janice, Janis, Jean, Jeanne, Jen, Joanna, Joanne, Johanna, Juana, Shavonne, Sian, Siobhan, Shane, Shaun, Shauna, and Sheena Head templates: {{en-proper noun}} Joan
  1. A female given name from French, a feminine form of John. Categories (topical): English female given names, English given names, Headwear Derived forms: country Joan, Joanie, Joany
    Sense id: en-Joan-en-name-xbwfXUNS Disambiguation of Headwear: 42 38 20 Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 8 entries Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 40 45 15 Disambiguation of Pages with 8 entries: 13 3 5 25 26 9 6 13

Noun

IPA: /d͡ʒoʊn/ [General-American], /d͡ʒəʊn/ [Received-Pronunciation] Forms: Joans [plural], Jo [alternative], Ione [alternative], Jone [alternative], Ioane [alternative], Joane [alternative]
Rhymes: -əʊn Etymology: A clipped or hypochoristic form of Joanna, from Latin Joanna, from Koine Greek Ἰωάννα (Iōánna), from Hebrew יוֹחָנָה (Yôḥānāh, literally “God is gracious”), the feminized form of יְהוֹחָנָן (Yəhōḥānān) which produced John and its many doublets. As a placeholder name, cf. similar use of John and Jack. Doublet of Ivana, Jana, Jane, Janice, Janis, Jean, Jeanne, Jen, Joanna, Joanne, Johanna, Juana, Shavonne, Sian, Siobhan, Shane, Shaun, Shauna, and Sheena. Etymology templates: {{der|en|la|Joanna}} Latin Joanna, {{der|en|grc-koi|Ἰωάννα}} Koine Greek Ἰωάννα (Iōánna), {{der|en|he|יוֹחָנָה|lit=God is gracious|tr=Yôḥānāh}} Hebrew יוֹחָנָה (Yôḥānāh, literally “God is gracious”), {{doublet|en|Ivana|Jana|Jane|Janice|Janis|Jean|Jeanne|Jen|Joanna|Joanne|Johanna|Juana|Shavonne|Sian|Siobhan|Shane|Shaun|Shauna|Sheena}} Doublet of Ivana, Jana, Jane, Janice, Janis, Jean, Jeanne, Jen, Joanna, Joanne, Johanna, Juana, Shavonne, Sian, Siobhan, Shane, Shaun, Shauna, and Sheena Head templates: {{en-noun}} Joan (plural Joans)
  1. (colloquial, obsolete or archaic) A placeholder or conventional name for any woman, particularly a younger lower-class woman. Tags: archaic, colloquial, obsolete Categories (topical): Headwear Synonyms: Jill, Jane Derived forms: Joan's as good as my lady in the dark Coordinate_terms: Jack, John
    Sense id: en-Joan-en-noun-iVhVYmKf Disambiguation of Headwear: 42 38 20 Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 8 entries, Pages with entries Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 40 45 15 Disambiguation of Pages with 8 entries: 13 3 5 25 26 9 6 13 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 11 2 4 25 32 10 5 11
  2. (fashion, obsolete or archaic) A kind of close-fitting cap for women popular in the mid-18th century. Tags: archaic, obsolete Categories (topical): Fashion, Headwear
    Sense id: en-Joan-en-noun-3UiSZPh4 Disambiguation of Headwear: 42 38 20 Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 40 45 15 Topics: fashion, lifestyle

Inflected forms

Alternative forms

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        "2": "la",
        "3": "Joanna"
      },
      "expansion": "Latin Joanna",
      "name": "der"
    },
    {
      "args": {
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        "2": "grc-koi",
        "3": "Ἰωάννα"
      },
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    },
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        "lit": "God is gracious",
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      },
      "expansion": "Hebrew יוֹחָנָה (Yôḥānāh, literally “God is gracious”)",
      "name": "der"
    },
    {
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        "15": "Sian",
        "16": "Siobhan",
        "17": "Shane",
        "18": "Shaun",
        "19": "Shauna",
        "2": "Ivana",
        "20": "Sheena",
        "3": "Jana",
        "4": "Jane",
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        "6": "Janis",
        "7": "Jean",
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        "9": "Jen"
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      "name": "doublet"
    }
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  "forms": [
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      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
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            "Human",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
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          "source": "w+disamb"
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      "derived": [
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          "word": "country Joan"
        },
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        },
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          "word": "Joany"
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      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1979, Margaret Atwood, Lady Oracle, page 336:",
          "text": "Maybe my mother didn't name me after Joan Crawford after all, I thought; she just told me that to cover up. She named me after Joan of Arc, didn't she know what happened to women like that?",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
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      "id": "en-Joan-en-name-xbwfXUNS",
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          "John"
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      "ipa": "/d͡ʒəʊn/",
      "tags": [
        "Received-Pronunciation"
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    {
      "rhymes": "-əʊn"
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  ],
  "word": "Joan"
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        "2": "grc-koi",
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  "etymology_text": "A clipped or hypochoristic form of Joanna, from Latin Joanna, from Koine Greek Ἰωάννα (Iōánna), from Hebrew יוֹחָנָה (Yôḥānāh, literally “God is gracious”), the feminized form of יְהוֹחָנָן (Yəhōḥānān) which produced John and its many doublets. As a placeholder name, cf. similar use of John and Jack.\nDoublet of Ivana, Jana, Jane, Janice, Janis, Jean, Jeanne, Jen, Joanna, Joanne, Johanna, Juana, Shavonne, Sian, Siobhan, Shane, Shaun, Shauna, and Sheena.",
  "forms": [
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      "form": "Jo",
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    {
      "form": "Ione",
      "tags": [
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    {
      "form": "Jone",
      "tags": [
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  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
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      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "40 45 15",
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            "Human",
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            "Fundamental"
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      "coordinate_terms": [
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          "_dis1": "78 22",
          "word": "Jack"
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      "derived": [
        {
          "_dis1": "78 22",
          "word": "Joan's as good as my lady in the dark"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1598, William Shakespeare, Loues Labors Lost, 1st Quarto, Act III, Scene i",
          "text": "Ber. O and I forsoth in loue, I that haue been loues whip?...\nWell, I will loue, write, sigh, pray, shue, grone,\nSome men must loue my Ladie, and some Ione."
        },
        {
          "ref": "1606, Thomas Heywood, If You Knouu Not Me, You Know No Bodie:",
          "text": "Joan’s as good as this French lady.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "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, William Shakespeare, The Life and Death of King Iohn, act I, scene i:",
          "text": "Bast. A foot of Honor better then I was,\nBut many a many foot of Land the worse.\nWell, now can I make any Ioane a Lady,\nGood den Sir Richard, Godamercy fellow,\nAnd if his name be George, Ile call him Peter;\nFor new made honor doth forget mens names...",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "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": "quote"
        },
        {
          "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": "quote"
        }
      ],
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        "A placeholder or conventional name for any woman, particularly a younger lower-class woman."
      ],
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        [
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          "conventional#English"
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          "any#English"
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        [
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          "woman#English"
        ],
        [
          "particularly",
          "particularly#English"
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        [
          "younger",
          "younger#English"
        ],
        [
          "lower-class",
          "lower-class#English"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(colloquial, obsolete or archaic) A placeholder or conventional name for any woman, particularly a younger lower-class woman."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "_dis1": "78 22",
          "word": "Jill"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "78 22",
          "word": "Jane"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "archaic",
        "colloquial",
        "obsolete"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Fashion",
          "orig": "en:Fashion",
          "parents": [
            "Clothing",
            "Culture",
            "Human",
            "Society",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
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          "source": "w"
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          "_dis": "40 45 15",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
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          "source": "w+disamb"
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          "_dis": "42 38 20",
          "kind": "topical",
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          "orig": "en:Headwear",
          "parents": [
            "Clothing",
            "Human",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1756, Connoisseur, number 134, page 810:",
          "text": "A grocer's wife attractd our eyes by a new-fashioned cap called a Joan.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A kind of close-fitting cap for women popular in the mid-18th century."
      ],
      "id": "en-Joan-en-noun-3UiSZPh4",
      "links": [
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          "fashion",
          "fashion"
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        [
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        "(fashion, obsolete or archaic) A kind of close-fitting cap for women popular in the mid-18th century."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "archaic",
        "obsolete"
      ],
      "topics": [
        "fashion",
        "lifestyle"
      ]
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  ],
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      "ipa": "/d͡ʒoʊn/",
      "tags": [
        "General-American"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/d͡ʒəʊn/",
      "tags": [
        "Received-Pronunciation"
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{
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    "English terms derived from Koine Greek",
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      "word": "Joany"
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        "lit": "God is gracious",
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        "15": "Sian",
        "16": "Siobhan",
        "17": "Shane",
        "18": "Shaun",
        "19": "Shauna",
        "2": "Ivana",
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        "3": "Jana",
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        "5": "Janice",
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        "7": "Jean",
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        "9": "Jen"
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      "expansion": "Doublet of Ivana, Jana, Jane, Janice, Janis, Jean, Jeanne, Jen, Joanna, Joanne, Johanna, Juana, Shavonne, Sian, Siobhan, Shane, Shaun, Shauna, and Sheena",
      "name": "doublet"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "A clipped or hypochoristic form of Joanna, from Latin Joanna, from Koine Greek Ἰωάννα (Iōánna), from Hebrew יוֹחָנָה (Yôḥānāh, literally “God is gracious”), the feminized form of יְהוֹחָנָן (Yəhōḥānān) which produced John and its many doublets. As a placeholder name, cf. similar use of John and Jack.\nDoublet of Ivana, Jana, Jane, Janice, Janis, Jean, Jeanne, Jen, Joanna, Joanne, Johanna, Juana, Shavonne, Sian, Siobhan, Shane, Shaun, Shauna, and Sheena.",
  "forms": [
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      "tags": [
        "alternative"
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    {
      "form": "Jone",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "Ioane",
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        "alternative"
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    {
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      "tags": [
        "alternative"
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    }
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  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "Joan",
      "name": "en-proper noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "name",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English female given names",
        "English female given names from French",
        "English given names",
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1979, Margaret Atwood, Lady Oracle, page 336:",
          "text": "Maybe my mother didn't name me after Joan Crawford after all, I thought; she just told me that to cover up. She named me after Joan of Arc, didn't she know what happened to women like that?",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A female given name from French, a feminine form of John."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "given name",
          "given name"
        ],
        [
          "John",
          "John"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/d͡ʒoʊn/",
      "tags": [
        "General-American"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/d͡ʒəʊn/",
      "tags": [
        "Received-Pronunciation"
      ]
    },
    {
      "rhymes": "-əʊn"
    }
  ],
  "word": "Joan"
}

{
  "categories": [
    "English 1-syllable words",
    "English clippings",
    "English countable nouns",
    "English doublets",
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English eponyms",
    "English female given names from Hebrew",
    "English lemmas",
    "English nouns",
    "English proper nouns",
    "English terms derived from Hebrew",
    "English terms derived from Koine Greek",
    "English terms derived from Latin",
    "English uncountable nouns",
    "Pages with 8 entries",
    "Pages with entries",
    "Rhymes:English/əʊn",
    "Rhymes:English/əʊn/1 syllable",
    "en:Headwear"
  ],
  "coordinate_terms": [
    {
      "word": "Jack"
    },
    {
      "word": "John"
    }
  ],
  "derived": [
    {
      "word": "Joan's as good as my lady in the dark"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "la",
        "3": "Joanna"
      },
      "expansion": "Latin Joanna",
      "name": "der"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "grc-koi",
        "3": "Ἰωάννα"
      },
      "expansion": "Koine Greek Ἰωάννα (Iōánna)",
      "name": "der"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "he",
        "3": "יוֹחָנָה",
        "lit": "God is gracious",
        "tr": "Yôḥānāh"
      },
      "expansion": "Hebrew יוֹחָנָה (Yôḥānāh, literally “God is gracious”)",
      "name": "der"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "10": "Joanna",
        "11": "Joanne",
        "12": "Johanna",
        "13": "Juana",
        "14": "Shavonne",
        "15": "Sian",
        "16": "Siobhan",
        "17": "Shane",
        "18": "Shaun",
        "19": "Shauna",
        "2": "Ivana",
        "20": "Sheena",
        "3": "Jana",
        "4": "Jane",
        "5": "Janice",
        "6": "Janis",
        "7": "Jean",
        "8": "Jeanne",
        "9": "Jen"
      },
      "expansion": "Doublet of Ivana, Jana, Jane, Janice, Janis, Jean, Jeanne, Jen, Joanna, Joanne, Johanna, Juana, Shavonne, Sian, Siobhan, Shane, Shaun, Shauna, and Sheena",
      "name": "doublet"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "A clipped or hypochoristic form of Joanna, from Latin Joanna, from Koine Greek Ἰωάννα (Iōánna), from Hebrew יוֹחָנָה (Yôḥānāh, literally “God is gracious”), the feminized form of יְהוֹחָנָן (Yəhōḥānān) which produced John and its many doublets. As a placeholder name, cf. similar use of John and Jack.\nDoublet of Ivana, Jana, Jane, Janice, Janis, Jean, Jeanne, Jen, Joanna, Joanne, Johanna, Juana, Shavonne, Sian, Siobhan, Shane, Shaun, Shauna, and Sheena.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "Joans",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "Jo",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "Ione",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "Jone",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "Ioane",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "Joane",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "Joan (plural Joans)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English colloquialisms",
        "English terms with archaic senses",
        "English terms with obsolete senses",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "Quotation templates to be cleaned"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1598, William Shakespeare, Loues Labors Lost, 1st Quarto, Act III, Scene i",
          "text": "Ber. O and I forsoth in loue, I that haue been loues whip?...\nWell, I will loue, write, sigh, pray, shue, grone,\nSome men must loue my Ladie, and some Ione."
        },
        {
          "ref": "1606, Thomas Heywood, If You Knouu Not Me, You Know No Bodie:",
          "text": "Joan’s as good as this French lady.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "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, William Shakespeare, The Life and Death of King Iohn, act I, scene i:",
          "text": "Bast. A foot of Honor better then I was,\nBut many a many foot of Land the worse.\nWell, now can I make any Ioane a Lady,\nGood den Sir Richard, Godamercy fellow,\nAnd if his name be George, Ile call him Peter;\nFor new made honor doth forget mens names...",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "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": "quote"
        },
        {
          "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": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A placeholder or conventional name for any woman, particularly a younger lower-class woman."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "placeholder",
          "placeholder#English"
        ],
        [
          "conventional",
          "conventional#English"
        ],
        [
          "name",
          "name#English"
        ],
        [
          "any",
          "any#English"
        ],
        [
          "woman",
          "woman#English"
        ],
        [
          "particularly",
          "particularly#English"
        ],
        [
          "younger",
          "younger#English"
        ],
        [
          "lower-class",
          "lower-class#English"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(colloquial, obsolete or archaic) A placeholder or conventional name for any woman, particularly a younger lower-class woman."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "archaic",
        "colloquial",
        "obsolete"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with archaic senses",
        "English terms with obsolete senses",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "en:Fashion"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1756, Connoisseur, number 134, page 810:",
          "text": "A grocer's wife attractd our eyes by a new-fashioned cap called a Joan.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A kind of close-fitting cap for women popular in the mid-18th century."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "fashion",
          "fashion"
        ],
        [
          "kind",
          "kind"
        ],
        [
          "close-fitting",
          "close-fitting"
        ],
        [
          "cap",
          "cap"
        ],
        [
          "women",
          "women"
        ],
        [
          "popular",
          "popular"
        ],
        [
          "mid-",
          "mid-"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(fashion, obsolete or archaic) A kind of close-fitting cap for women popular in the mid-18th century."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "archaic",
        "obsolete"
      ],
      "topics": [
        "fashion",
        "lifestyle"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/d͡ʒoʊn/",
      "tags": [
        "General-American"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/d͡ʒəʊn/",
      "tags": [
        "Received-Pronunciation"
      ]
    },
    {
      "rhymes": "-əʊn"
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "Jill"
    },
    {
      "word": "Jane"
    }
  ],
  "word": "Joan"
}

Download raw JSONL data for Joan meaning in English (9.2kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-03-13 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-03-02 using wiktextract (f074e77 and 633533e). 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.