"jitney" meaning in English

See jitney in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Adjective

Etymology: 1886, originally for a five-cent US coin (a nickel); use for taxis and buses due to these services originally charging five cents as fare, popularized circa 1915. The etymology is uncertain; it is believed to originate from Louisiana Creole jetnée, from French jeton (“token, coin-sized metal disc”), though this is disputed. Evidence for the Louisiana Creole French origin includes the geographic distribution (Southeastern US, especially Black/African-American), and early spelling as gitney, which is common French spelling for the /ʒi/ pronunciation. Etymology templates: {{unc|en|nocap=1}} uncertain, {{bor|en|lou|jetnée}} Louisiana Creole jetnée, {{der|en|fr|jeton||token, coin-sized metal disc}} French jeton (“token, coin-sized metal disc”) Head templates: {{en-adjective|-}} jitney (not comparable)
  1. (US, archaic) Synonym of cheap, very inexpensive. Tags: US, archaic, not-comparable Synonyms: cheap [synonym, synonym-of], very inexpensive [synonym, synonym-of]
    Sense id: en-jitney-en-adj-JTa7-GkX Categories (other): American English

Noun

Forms: jitneys [plural]
Etymology: 1886, originally for a five-cent US coin (a nickel); use for taxis and buses due to these services originally charging five cents as fare, popularized circa 1915. The etymology is uncertain; it is believed to originate from Louisiana Creole jetnée, from French jeton (“token, coin-sized metal disc”), though this is disputed. Evidence for the Louisiana Creole French origin includes the geographic distribution (Southeastern US, especially Black/African-American), and early spelling as gitney, which is common French spelling for the /ʒi/ pronunciation. Etymology templates: {{unc|en|nocap=1}} uncertain, {{bor|en|lou|jetnée}} Louisiana Creole jetnée, {{der|en|fr|jeton||token, coin-sized metal disc}} French jeton (“token, coin-sized metal disc”) Head templates: {{en-noun}} jitney (plural jitneys)
  1. (US, archaic) Synonym of nickel, a 5-cent coin or amount. Tags: US, archaic Synonyms: nickel [synonym, synonym-of]
    Sense id: en-jitney-en-noun-4uX7itLI Categories (other): American English
  2. Synonym of minibus, especially one with a scheduled fixed route. Categories (topical): Vehicles Synonyms: minibus [synonym, synonym-of]
    Sense id: en-jitney-en-noun-NORV48x1 Disambiguation of Vehicles: 4 3 32 26 7 23 5 Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 6 5 19 29 6 27 8 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 4 3 20 29 6 28 9 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 3 2 22 31 6 30 6
  3. Synonym of gypsy cab, an unlicensed taxi. Categories (topical): Vehicles Synonyms: gypsy cab [synonym, synonym-of]
    Sense id: en-jitney-en-noun-3GgkG3Ij Disambiguation of Vehicles: 4 3 32 26 7 23 5 Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 6 5 19 29 6 27 8 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 4 3 20 29 6 28 9 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 3 2 22 31 6 30 6
  4. Synonym of shared taxi, a taxi usually shared with strangers to maximize profitability per trip. Synonyms: shared taxi [synonym, synonym-of]
    Sense id: en-jitney-en-noun-jV1llsct
  5. (Canada) An informal lawn bowling, curling, or darts competition in which all players present are randomly drawn into teams. Tags: Canada Categories (topical): Coins, Vehicles
    Sense id: en-jitney-en-noun-GZfwV4Ia Disambiguation of Coins: 7 20 16 20 5 26 5 Disambiguation of Vehicles: 4 3 32 26 7 23 5 Categories (other): Canadian English, English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 6 5 19 29 6 27 8 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 4 3 20 29 6 28 9 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 3 2 22 31 6 30 6
  6. A fraudulent arrangement whereby a broker who has direct access to an exchange executes trades on behalf of a broker who does not.
    Sense id: en-jitney-en-noun-Zcjoy-99

Inflected forms

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      "name": "en-adjective"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "adj",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "American English",
        "English terms with archaic senses"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Synonym of cheap, very inexpensive."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "cheap",
          "cheap#English"
        ],
        [
          "very",
          "very"
        ],
        [
          "inexpensive",
          "inexpensive"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(US, archaic) Synonym of cheap, very inexpensive."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "tags": [
            "synonym",
            "synonym-of"
          ],
          "word": "cheap"
        },
        {
          "tags": [
            "synonym",
            "synonym-of"
          ],
          "word": "very inexpensive"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "US",
        "archaic",
        "not-comparable"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "wikipedia": [
    "jitney"
  ],
  "word": "jitney"
}

Download raw JSONL data for jitney meaning in English (6.2kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-02-03 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-01-20 using wiktextract (05fdf6b and 9dbd323). 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.