"J" Word Origins

jovial

Late Latin

From Italian gioviale, from Late Latin Ioviālis ("of Jove/Jupiter") — people born under Jupiter's astrological influence were once believed to have a naturally cheerful temperament.

joviality

Origin

Borrowed from French jovialité.

jovian

Origin

From Latin Iovis (“Jove, Jupiter”) + -an, analysable as Jove + -ian. Piecewise doublet of Zeusian.

jowl

Origin

From Middle English jawle, chawl, chavel (“jaw, jawbone”), from Old English ċeafl (“jaw, cheek”), from Proto-West Germanic *kafl (“jaw, cheek”). The modern form (for expected chavel, chawl; still found dialectally) is influenced by jaw, which it is a partial doublet of.

joy

Latin

From Old French joie, from Latin gaudium ("joy"), from gaudēre ("to rejoice, be glad").

Joyce

Origin

From the medieval given name Josse, ultimately from a Breton word meaning "lord" — its link to "joy" is a popular but mistaken folk association.

joyful

Origin

From joy plus the suffix -ful, meaning "full of."

joyfully

Middle English

From Middle English joifulliche, formed from joyful plus the adverb-forming suffix -ly.

Joyner

Origin

A variant spelling of "joiner," an occupational surname for a skilled woodworker.

joyous

Old French

From Old French joieus, itself from joie ("joy") plus the adjective suffix -eus.

joyously

Origin

From Middle English joyously, equivalent to joyous + -ly.

joyride

Origin

Formed from joy plus ride.

joystick

Origin · 1910

From joy plus stick, first recorded around 1910 as "joy-stick" for an airplane's control stick. The exact connection to "joy" isn't clear.

jozi

Origin

Borrowed from Zulu Jozi.

JPEG

English

An acronym of Joint Photographic Experts Group, the standards committee whose image-compression standard the format implements.

JPG

English

A shortening of the file extension .jpeg to three characters, required by an older filename limit; JPEG itself is an acronym of Joint Photographic Experts Group.

Jr

Origin

Shortened form of "junior."

JS

English

An initialism of JavaScript.

JSON

English

An initialism of JavaScript Object Notation, from the fact that its syntax follows the way objects are written in JavaScript.

ju

Chinese

From Mandarin words romanized as "ju," representing different Chinese characters depending on context.

Juan

Latin

From Spanish, ultimately tracing back through Latin and Greek to the Hebrew name that also gave English "John."

Juana

Spanish

From Spanish, ultimately from the same Hebrew root that produced "Joanna" and "Jane."

Juanita

Origin

From Juana plus the diminutive ending -ita, roughly meaning "little Juana."

Juarez

Spanish

Anglicized spelling of the Spanish surname Juárez.

Jubal

Hebrew

From the Hebrew name Yuval.

jubilant

Latin

From Latin jubilans, the present participle of jubilare, meaning to shout for joy.

jubilar

Origin

Compare French jubilaire.

jubilarian

Origin

From jubilee + -arian.

jubilate

Origin

Either a back-formation from jubilation, or borrowed from Latin iūbilātus, perfect passive participle of iubilō (“to shout for joy”), see -ate (verb-forming suffix).

jubilation

Latin

From Latin iubilatio, "a shouting for joy."

jubilee

Latin

From Old French jubile, ultimately from Hebrew yobel ("ram's horn trumpet"), because a ram's horn was blown to announce the ancient Israelite jubilee year. Later influenced by Latin iubilum, "a shout of joy."

Judah

Hebrew

From Biblical Hebrew Yehuda; a doublet of the name Judas.

judaic

Origin

Borrowed from Middle French judaique (modern French judaïque) and its etymon Latin iūdaicus, from Ancient Greek Ἰουδαϊκός (Ioudaïkós), ultimately from Hebrew יְהוּדָה (y'hudá, “Judah”). By surface analysis, Juda + -ic.

Judaism

Late Latin

From Late Latin iudaismus, from Greek Ioudaismos, ultimately from the Hebrew name Yehuda ("Judah").

judaist

Origin

From Juda(ism) + -ist.

Judas

Hebrew

From the name Judas, the biblical disciple who betrayed Jesus; ultimately from Hebrew Yehuda.

judaslike

Origin

From Judas + -like.

judasly

Origin

From Judas + -ly

Judd

Middle English

From a Middle English short form of the name Jordan.

Jude

Origin

A short form of Judas, adopted to distinguish the apostle Jude Thaddaeus from Judas Iscariot.

Judea

Latin

From Latin Iudaea, from Greek Ioudaia, ultimately from Hebrew Yehuda.

judean

Origin

From Latin iūdaeus [from Ancient Greek Ἰουδαῖος (Ioudaîos), from Ἰουδά (Ioudá, “Judah”) + -ιος (-ios)] + -an. By surface analysis, Judah + -ean.

judge

Latin

From Old French juge, from Latin iudex.

Judges

Origin

Named for its content — a record of the acts of Israel's judges.

judgment

Latin

From Old French jugement, from Latin iudicare ("to judge"), formed from judge plus -ment.

judgmental

Origin

From judgment plus the adjective suffix -al.

judgy

Origin · 2000

From judge plus -y, an informal coinage from the late 2000s.

judicate

Origin

First attested in c. 1577; borrowed from Latin iūdicātus, perfect passive participle of iūdicō (see -ate (verb-forming suffix)) and possibly partly a clipping of adjudicate. Doublet of judge.