jawn
English
editPronunciation
edit- IPA(key): /d͡ʒɔːn/
Audio (General Australian): (file) - Rhymes: -ɔːn
Etymology 1
editVerb
editjawn (third-person singular simple present jawns, present participle jawning, simple past and past participle jawned)
Noun
editjawn (plural jawns)
- Obsolete form of yawn.
- 1600 or 1601 (date written), I. M. [i.e., John Marston], Antonios Reuenge. The Second Part. […], London: […] [Richard Bradock] for Thomas Fisher, and are to be soulde [by Matthew Lownes] […], published 1602, →OCLC, (please specify the page), (please specify the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):
- Defiance to thy power, thou rifted jawn! Now, by the loved heaven, sooner thou shalt Rinse thy foul ribs from the black filth of sin That soots thy heart than make me wretched.
Etymology 2
editFirst attested in the 1990s. Most likely an alteration of joint. Compare junt.
Noun
editjawn (plural jawns)
- (slang, chiefly Mid-Atlantic US) Something; a thing; any object, place, or person.
- Coordinate terms: see Thesaurus:thingy
- 2007 September 23, Jessica Pressler, “The Bar Car is Rocking”, in New York Times:
- "Just back from a tour in Australia, he was sitting at a table in the dining car with a group of friends that included members of the hip-hop groups Spank Rock and Plastic Little. 'This,' he said, 'is the jawn.'"
- 2013 August 20, MK Asante, Buck: A Memoir (Spiegel & Grau) [2]:
- "Jawn can mean anything—person, place, or thing. Sometimes if we’re telling a story and don’t want people to know what we’re talking about, we’ll plug jawn in for everything. The other day I was at the jawn around the corner with the young jawn from down the street. We get to the jawn, right, and the ngh at the door is all on his jawn, not knowing I had that jawn on me. Man, it was about to be on in that jawn."
- (slang, chiefly Mid-Atlantic US) A woman.
- 2006, Noire [pseudonym], Thug-A-Licious: An Urban Erotic Tale, New York, N.Y.: One World, Ballantine Books, →ISBN, page 67:
- Unlike most of these ghetto jawns who were wrapped up in all kinds of surface shit that didn't mean a damn thing, Muddah was like me in a lotta ways. She was from the streets but she had goals and dreams.
- 2009, Asher Roth, I Love College:
- “When it comes to condoms, put two on, and tomorrow night, find a new jawn.”