J

Jack
It is not very well known that Jack is just another form of John. This is evidenced by the fact that John F. Kennedy is often referred to, at least in Britain, as Jack Kennedy: “Labour is still running on ideas that brought it to power 10 years ago … Robert and Jack Kennedy are endlessly quoted, even if much policy is classic Keynes”. (The Independent 27 September 2005)

Jazz

For a start, jazz did not have the current musical sense. It was a slang word for ‘pep’, ‘excitement’, and it also meant ‘excessive talk’, ‘nonsense’ (a meaning conserved in and all that jazz). As an adjective, it then went on to develop a wide range of sense, like ‘lively’, ‘vivid’. From there, it was not far till the musical sense, first recorded in Chicago in 1915. From then on it just rocketed: jazz music, jazz record, jazz singer, jazz club, jazz band were all around before the end of the 1920s. The early practitioners of jazz knew they were in for something of a musical revolution: jazz age appeared as soon as 1920. The members of the American Dialect Society were so enthralled by the word that they chose it for the “Word of the Century”.  (Crystal 2012: 245-246)

Jeans
During the time of the gold rush, a Bavarian immigrant arrived in California hoping to sell rolls of cotton canvas to the miners for their tents. He soon realised that there was a better market still for trousers made of this canvas. This became quite a success. Later, he replaced the tent canvas by another type of durable fabric, which he dyed blue. At this time, similar trousers were already in use in England. The name of the immigrant was Levi Strauss. That is where “Levi’s” comes from. The second kind of cloth he used was imported from Nîmes in France. That is where denim comes from – they were made of material which came de Nîmes. The cotton fabric used in England originally came from Genoa in Italy. That is where jeans comes from. They were made of material which came from Geane – one of several medieval ways of rendering the name of the city. (Flavell & Flavell 3 2005: 243-4)

Jellyfish
In spite of its name, not a fish, but a sea creature with a body like jelly. (German Qualle)

Jubilee
The word jubilee comes from a Hebrew word, jobhel, which meant ‘ram’s horn’! The ram’s horn trumpet was used to herald in the Year of Jubilee, and gradually the horn came to stand for the celebration. In the Hebrew tradition, the jubilee was celebrated only every fifty years. During this year, land was to lie fallow, slaves were provided for, and debts were cancelled. The Jubilee Year was recorded in the Old Testament, and when the Old Testament was translated into Greek, the word was adopted and then, through Latin, came into our languages. The meaning began to widen when the Jubilee Year was introduced into the Christian Church and the time span was shortened to 33 and then to 25 years. (Flavell & Flavell 2005: 85-6)

Judgement
One of the English words which can be spelt in two different ways, “judgement” or “judgment”. Nobody seems to object to this, and no problems seem to derive from this. I wonder why this could not be made the rule for many more words. Why should we have one and only one correct form for each and every word? A second, rather different question is who uses which form. Are the people who use judgement in any way younger or older, more or less educated, particularly British or particularly American? In other words, is there anything like free variation, or is the choice of one linguistic form never pure chance?

Jumbo
If you travel in a jumbo jet or have a jumbo-sized hot dog, you use a word which owes its existence to an elephant. The elephant, Jumbo, was the attraction of London Zoo in the 19th century. As he got out of control in his puberty, he was sold to Barnum Circus in America, where he was killed in an accident with a locomotive!

Just
In modern English, just is no. 105, i.e. is the 105th most frequently used word in English, at least in written American English, according to a survey. What makes it so special? It is the first word in the list which is derived from French. All the words higher in the list are from Old English (Crystal 2005: 162). This is quite remarkable as the overall number of French words in English is very high. If we count each word only once, the share which French has is very important, if we count every word every time it occurs, it is much less important.