Thing Other definitions of JAWN: All of our slang term and phrase definitions are made possible by our wonderful visitors. I have heard different explanations of the phrase: either it's because supposedly you hold a metro ticket down and wax round the edges, or it's a reference to the thin black strip on the back of the tickets. Marketplace focuses on the latest business news both nationally and internationally, the global economy, and wider events linked to the financial markets. Thats the $64,000 question, Jones laughs. Advertise your Facebook post on Urban Dictionary in just 3 clicks. Jaw-away definition (intransitive, idiomatic) To jabber; to gabble; to ramble. Posted by Krassimira Bijeva on May 1, 2023 . The Humanoid Typhoon (@OD_King) July 6, 2018, Incredibles 2 was amazing honestly lol I gotta see it without the shrooms to make sure but that jawn was insane. White Philadelphians, notes Jones, are quick to note that they too use the word jawn, and that its a Philly thing and not just a black Philly thing. When you know the history behind jawn, understand where it comes from and recognize the community who brought meaning to it, you can better appreciate its more subtle meanings. In Philadelphia, "jawn" can mean just about anything. Great Big List of Beautiful and Useless Words, Vol. T-shirts, posters, stickers, home decor, and more, designed and sold by independent artists around the world. This idea of "meeting" eventually led to "joint" being used to refer to disreputable places where criminals met: Like this definition, an informative jawn. Luckily, its far outstripped its roots since its move south. Due to the way the algorithm works, the thesaurus gives you mostly related slang words, rather than exact synonyms. For more information, please see our It warms my heart when little children say it, especially when I can guess that no one has ever defined it for them. Of course, [] Another element: African-American English often, but not always, does a thing where final P, T, and K become a glottal stop, says Jones. Laws that perpetuated separate but equal policies werent the only ways in which segregation was enforced. All rights reserved, Sixers to Donate $760 Per Assist to Philly Gun Violence Prevention During Playoffs, Police ID 2 Persons of Interest in Triple Homicidein Philadelphia, Mark Your Calendars: These Festivals Are Coming to the Philly Area This Spring, Bryce Harper Cleared to Return to Phillies Lineup, Source Says. As in, "Ill have a wooder." If its hot out, be sure to order an ice wooder. I got these up in a 52nd St. jawn. By Cary Hardy May 31, 2022. Definitions include: Most uses of "shit" also work with ". You can even buy a t-shirt that celebrates its contribution to a local delicacy, or one that marries two of our greatest accomplishments: Wawa and the word. A popular three-floor apartment building, where each unit has a front porch/balcony, so people can sit outside, yell to their neighbors and rip butts. (He did not respond to a request for an interview; Jones, who has studied with him, says hes enjoying his retirement.). Home University Of Memphis What Is A Jawn Urban Dictionary? All orders are custom made and most ship worldwide within 24 hours. It feels like its oh ee, but phonetically, thats not actually how we tend to pronounce it. Ben Zimmer, a linguist and language columnist whos written and talked about jawn before, agrees, writing in an email that jawn evidently developed as a Philly variant of joint in the 80s, following the release of the popular 1981 single Thats the Joint by Funky Four Plus One, an early hip-hop group from the Bronx. Hear from current Drexel students and staff members . WHYY provides trustworthy, fact-based, local news and information and world-class entertainment to everyone in our community. jawn 1-another word for joint; a marijuana cigarette . "We went to Chickie's and Pete's last night. Or should these Philly words stay strictly local? Related words: doodad someshit thingamajig whatever Where does jawn come from? ), the disreputable part was gradually lost, and a joint simply became a place, as Cab Calloway defined it in 1939 in his Hepcat Dictionary (as in the joint is jumpin). Login, Register, Login instantly with Facebook. Growing up in the suburbs just west of the city, I heard it used mostly to refer to objects and events. Archived. Since joint was used already as a place, and specifically, in the minds of some Americans, a disreputable place, it came to be used for other disreputable places: betting parlors at first, then opium dens. Comes from Boo meaning love and Jawn meaning thing. Or, as Dan Nosowitz of Atlas Obscura has described it: The word jawn is unlike any other English word. This idea of "meeting" eventually led to "joint" being used to refer to disreputable places where criminals met: The jointsthat means the offices where the swindle was carried onthat is a cant word. Sessions and Papers of the Central Criminal Court, 1862. jawn A word used in Philadelphia to describe any noun whose appropriate word could not be recalled by the brain in the necessary time. Talking about a movie; yo that jawn was fire. Put the snowballs down, Philly. Philadelphians have a sense of humor about their jawn, though, and may joke about its useor overuse. phrasal verb with pull verb [ T ] /pl/ us. Synonymous with "thing" or "thingy.". It is a magical word, and did not come about in a vacuum. Philly and of the digital series Delishtory. Share. Also jaun. She is also a strong advocate for equal opportunity, and she works tirelessly to ensure that all students have access to quality education regardless of their socioeconomic status or race. You and your jawn would be in the "talking stage" Ex: No she is not my girlfriend yet, but she's my jawn for now. When. Average of 69 votes: 2. jawn- noun: literally can mean anything. Words We're Watching talks about words we are increasingly seeing in use but that have not yet met our criteria for entry. by mattermatters January 19, 2018 We depend on ad revenue to craft and curate stories about the worlds hidden wonders. In the South, a juke joint, perhaps itself a variation of jug joint, was a gathering place for Black people to enjoy music, drink and dancing while they were excluded from white establishments. Founded by Aaron . Its time for Philadelphia to invest in solutions that will make our citys public spaces safer, more equitable, and enjoyable for all, writes Ariel Ben-Amos. You can say jawns, but more often its going to be, like, Whered you get them jawn, says Jones. The plural can be either jawns or jawn. Were not a fussy city. noun Slang. Rocking music from ALL @jacksons (#Rebbie https://t.co/MTOr4DKpLf, https://twitter.com/Sashalafoxx/status/913789717610713088. Check out our slang phone case selection for the very best in unique or custom, handmade pieces from our shops. Certainly, says Jones, the white and black dialects in Philly are diverging in very specific, notable ways. Definitions include: the potential of facilitating one's meeting of other people. Region: Greater Philadelphia. The classic example is the sound in the middle of the word uh-oh. Many Brits, and some New Yorkers, will also throw a glottal stop in the middle of words like button and mountain, so the former becomes buh-uhn., Eliminating the final consonant and turning it into a glottal stop is something that happens in AAVE with certain combinations of sounds; you can hear it here when noted Canadian idiot Nardwuar asks rapper Travis Scott how he keeps his pants up. When @paradenoia remakes Ferris Buellers Day Off with a local angle. Live near Philly, am white, everybody says jawn. Originally from the Latin iunctus, it was Old French that turned it into joint, meaning a connection or association, multiple things coming together, a juncture. Sign up for writing inspiration in your email, Zombie movie based in Philly "JAWN OF THE DEAD". Think about what happened to twerk, and bling, and fleek. I cringed when Tessa Mae Thompsons character Bianca deployed it in the movie Creed. No less than half of a can's worth of chew in a single 'rub' may be called a Husky jawn. No, junt is not in the scrabble dictionary. Joanna McClinton Talks the Bible, Beyonc, and the Big Lie. Through more semantic bleaching, joint became less a place and more a thing. Sign up for our newsletter and enter to win the second edition of our book. Black Philadelphians are moving more toward an eh sound for that vowel, so bag is more like beg. Or backpack becomes beckpeck. That change isnt unusual in itselfthose two movements are the most common changes from the standard vowel in bag, across the countrybut the fact that white Philadelphia picked one movement and black Philadelphia picked another is just more evidence of the effect segregation has on linguistics. Fast shipping, Satisfaction Guaranteed! July 4, 2022 jawn urban dictionarybritish white cattle for sale in washingtonbritish white cattle for sale in washington Philadelphia, this jawn's for you. Others, as a 2016 Atlas Obscura story points out, claim that its completely original. Definitions include: to avoid punishment. Jawn is a slang term local to the Philadelphia Delaware Valley metropolitan area. Its time for something new. Wed, November 1, 2023 7:30 pm . One goose, two geese. There is a divide between our understandings of jawn, but its not entirely a geographical one. Considering that Southern hip hop is a relatively recent genre compared to the Coasts . When a person drags out a sentence like That jaawnn craaazy, for example, the elongated emphasis implies that there was something either very significant about this person, thing, or experience. Posted by 6 years ago. A more recent nickname Memphis has adopted is Grind City, which is mostly attributed to the city's NBA team, the Grizzlies. How Do You Follow Up On A Job Application Examples. A question you ask someone to determine if "Jawn" is a part of their regular vocabulary, and thus whether they speak in an Eastern Pennsylvanian dialect. "Jawn" is a noun can be singular or plural. Want a digest of WHYYs programs, events & stories? Thanks lol. A possibility is that the mutation happened in such an extreme way because Philadelphia is, in some ways, an extreme kind of place. See more words with the same meaning: unspecified item (s), 'stuff', 'thing (s)'. (Thus the words use for drug paraphernalia in general and eventually, in particular, a marijuana cigarette.). It's even the name of a radio station in Philly. Photograph by raymondclarkeimages/Flickr. Joint is like a lesser jawn. It tries, but it has limits. Any object, being or entity. And jawns meaning isnt just what the word is today its also deeply connected to where the word came from. How dare you called me a ninnyhammer you pillock! We think you'll like it. Can "youse" think of any other Philly slang that should be added to the dictionary with "jawn?" In the 2015 movie Creed, a character asks a sandwich maker to put some onions on that jawn. But it can get much more complex. Definitions include: the current location. Hip-hop culture and rap popularized the term joint which spread beyond New York Citys borders all along the east coast. Signs and symptoms of a boil usually include: A painful, red bump that starts out small and can enlarge to more than 2 inches (5 centimeters) Reddish or purplish, swollen skin around the bump. Jawn is a philly term that is literally anything. chiefly Scottish. Definitions include: replacement name for an object when one can't remember the object's name. It is an all-purpose noun, a stand-in for inanimate objects, abstract concepts, events, places, individual people, and groups of people. But one of his first interactions with legendary Penn linguist Bill Labov started him on the road to understanding his new city. Delivered to your inbox! (jn) 1. Note that this thesaurus is not in any way affiliated with Urban Dictionary. Reserved for romantic relationships. This is simply due to the way the search algorithm works. According to Taylor Jones, a PhD student who has researched the origins of jawn and worked with Labov's Philadelphia Neighborhood Corpus, the young man used joint to refer to a bag, a place, women, and his own genitalia. The advent of African-American Vernacular English, or AAVE, dovetails with jawn in some pretty important ways. Jawn is used as an all encompassing substitute for any person, place, or thing. Shut your mouth, you dumb jabroni! (Elizabeth Estrada/WHYY). Jawn is like the Philadelphia version of the French je ne sais quoi jawn sais quoi, if you will. As jawn gained popularity locally and began attracting outside attention, thereve been disputes about the terms origins. It's called Junt, a name very appropriate for Memphis Made Brewing. Sign up for our weekly newsletter. It can refer to a single thing: My last iPhone gonna be the 10 Im keep that jawn until it breaks down, https://twitter.com/GnaarlyCharlie/status/913811670073511936. Hey NYC, 24 Hours til the coolest Jackson Jawn ever. Its how we live. In local usage, jawn has been used to describe clothing, events, locations, or just a thing in general, as evidenced by this sign for Philadelphia-themed memorabilia in a Five Below store on Market Street. An eye-opening journey through the history, culture, and places of the culinary world. Joint in this sense was used of everything from opium dens to illegal saloons, but in time the word underwent semantic bleaching and simply referred to a place. Joint is an old word: it dates back to the 1200s and referred initially to the point where two bones meet. And this is where the story goes jawn-ward. Definitions include: promotional material. This meaning of joint was at least understood by the interviewer, who didnt have to, you know, stop this guy and say, Wait, what the hell are you talking about, so its possible that this insanely thorough semantic bleaching took hold a little while before the interview, sometime in the late 1970s. Badlands. Jawn is so much more than just an interchangeable Philly noun its an emphasis of the noun its replacing. Antonia Leonard is an education expert who has dedicated her life to helping students achieve their academic goals. Jawn can be singular or plural. Note that clicking the link below will block access to this site for 24 hours. It can also describe people, but should not be used to describe an individual woman. Theres no sense fighting it; smarter to just give in. That jawn over there be doing some messed up shit" or to point out something in particular "Shut up and go get that jawn so I can return it to the store". Please note that Urban Thesaurus uses third party scripts (such as Google Analytics and advertisements) which use cookies. One moose, two moose. The history of jawn is fascinating and surprisingly well-documented.It evolved from joint, whose usage broadened from the specific spot where two bones meet, in the 13th century; to any kind of place; to in New York in the late 20th century many kinds of people, places, or things.As the word moved south, its pronunciation adapted regionally, with the oi sound becoming more of an aw. We think you'll like it. As you've probably noticed, the slang synonyms for "term" are listed above. You can hear it in a word like bag, which white Philadelphians will sometimes pronounce more like byeag, an almost nasal, Midwest-y kind of sound. Words, phrases, and structures have just about the same geographical span as a peanut chew or a Tastykake. We gots our awn way aspeakin, and yuze can figger out wot weir sayen, by uzen Stu's pronunciation and translation guide to Philly's langwich: Ack A Mee: Acme, a local supermarket. Or when the L.A. Times dissects Kate Winslets Mare of Easttown accent. Perhaps deciphering what a person is exactly referring to when they use the word sounds cryptic, but its pretty simple and the nuances of context are important and they make a big difference: Im offended if Im referred to as the jawn but flattered if Im told You look like a jawn.. It can mean anything. At some point in the 1970s, Philadelphia coined the all-encompassing noun jawn. The word has remained a treasure in the citys black lexicon and natives have long stamped it as an integral part of their vocabulary. It is hard to define, which is why people tend to just throw it into sentences or tack it on to other words to add a bit of Philly flare to their vocabulary. Definition of jawn jawn noun an unspecified thing or person. Jackie went to the party with her Boo Jawn. Urban Dictionary Screenie or Screeny means "Screen Shot". Further south, in DC and Memphis, the New York influence is lessened, and so while they also changed the sound of the word joint, they did it in different, more Southern ways. If you know of another definition of JAWN that should be included here, please let us know. . So lets start at the beginning: Where does jawn come from? Everything You Need to Know Before the 76ers Enter the NBA Playoffs, Philadelphia Mayoral Candidate Guide: Cherelle Parker, Philadelphia Mayoral Candidate Guide: Helen Gym, This search result is here to prevent scraping, Helen Gym Sends Cease and Desist Letter to All Philly TV Stations, How Philly Cheesesteaks Became a Big Deal in Lahore, Pakistan, The Most Bizarre Moment from Last Night's Philly Mayoral Debate. One mans crass commercialization is another mans triumph in Idiom Abroad. It is a completely acceptable statement in Philadelphia to ask someone to remember to bring that jawn to the jawn.. Definitions include: an object whose name isn't known or can't be recalled instantly. (in this case, a dip chew) Did you hear about that bull Tony Gwynn? You see that guy over there, he's my young jawn. a nearby thing "Yo, pass me that jawn ." Sean Adams | [email protected] 'Iggles' Meaning: Eagles, i.e. Winner will be selected at random on 06/01/2023. The vowel sound in joint is a diphthong, meaning its two smaller vowel sounds that act like a single vowel sound. In Philadelphia, a phenomenon occurred, first with the word joint and later with its mutation jawn, known in the linguistic community as semantic bleaching. The term refers to a word that originally has one or a small number of specific meanings, but then eventually loses the shades of meaning and becomes something much more broad and general. Touch device users, explore by touch or with swipe gestures. The specific lengthening of aw in Philadelphia is possibly because of the one major similarity that Philadelphia has with New York, linguistically: ah sounds are often changed to an exaggerated aw, in words like caught. (New Yorkers are more extreme, with their cauu-ffee, but Philadelphians do this, too.) Or you might try boyfriend or girlfriend to get words that can mean either one of these (e.g. Jawn's been in the news lately the Daily News' Bill Bender got the perfect quote from a witness to one of the many worrying building collapses, and "The whole jawn came down" will now live forever.We thought, then, that this was the perfect time to post this interview with linguist, lexicographer, Wall Street Journal columnist and former New York Times On Language columnist, UPenn Language . Jawn is Philadelphia slang for anything literally anything. When my mother said Pass me that jawn, she couldve wanted me to pass her the remote or her purse. It was intended to spell English words in a more phonetically accurate way. Need to refer to something? Nick's Boo Jawn dumped him behind the school's dumpsters. As with its architecture, Philadelphias accent, syntax, and vocabulary are rarely discussed outside of the city. The rise of jawn dovetails with breakthroughs in the study of American linguistics itself. Heres some info about our unique and irreplaceable all-purpose noun. By rejecting non-essential cookies, Reddit may still use certain cookies to ensure the proper functionality of our platform. Just-In-Time. Not only is Memphis dubbed Home of the Blues, but it's also known as the Birthplace of Rock 'n Roll. Our weekly newsletter delivers original reporting on the people, places and things that make Philly. Jawn is a context-dependent substitute noun, a noun that substitutes for any other noun. Report Save. This is not meant to be a formal definition of jawn like most terms we define on Dictionary.com, but is As a nonprofit organization, we rely on financial support from readers like you. to work closely together to achieve something: We can survive this crisis as long as we all pull together. Shop Slang Term Teddy Bears at TeeShirtPalace. Jawn is used as an all encompassing substitute for any person, place, or thing. Nosowitz goes so far as to call it a magical word. It must be; its even been dissected on public radio. Definitions include: a cold-blooded or frigid woman. The word joint has a much older set of meanings. Joint is an old word: it dates back to the 1200s and referred initially to the point where two bones meet. Used particularly in reference to a physical object which is either difficult for the speaker to describe or in cases where the word used to describe the object in question is much longer than the one-syllable " jawn ." A recording taken in 1981 of a young black man from West Philly has him using the word joint (which came, again, from New York hip-hop), but in a broader way than even the hip-hop artists used it. Offer subject to change without notice. Used particularly in reference to a physical object which is either difficult for the speaker to describe or in cases where the word used to describe the object in question is much longer than the one-syllable " jawn ." Yo, you see that jawn, she bad as shit. To learn more, see the privacy policy. Theres no need, after all, because its ingrained in us. Submitted by Kia Karaam from Philadelphia, PA, USA on Nov 20 1997 . Linguists have long been fascinated by the peculiar mid-Atlantic mutations of words such as water and creek (in Philadelphia parlance, wooder and crick) and an unusual lexicon that includes words such as hoagie and jimmies (a sub sandwich and sprinkles, respectively), but nothing has captivated them quite like jawn., The word jawn is unlike any other English word. Bad jawn - urban dictionary. Definitions include: inadequate, displeasing, or of poor quality. Like Tastykakes, Johnny Brenda's, and booing the Mets Jawn, pronounced \jn\, is the Philadelphia all-purpose noun. Jawns is fine, but you can also modify jawn elsewhere. Until the 1960s and early 1970s, the way black Americans speak was seen as simply an incorrect version of standard, meaning white, American English. It can refer to an item, a situation or even a person. And because of the Southern drawls influence on Philly-tongue, not to mention that of African American Vernacular English, we tend to draw out our vowels and swallow our final consonants, so no t. As a couple of grad students explain in the Philadelphia Encyclopedia, In essence, Philadelphia created the pronunciation of the word, but its meaning already existed.. Examples of jawn Zombie movie based in Philly "JAWN OF THE DEAD" Joint and jawn are both slang for a place (particularly a restaurant or bar): Meet me at the pizza joint. Last edited on May 13 2005. What does green mean in Florida? Submitted by Kia Karaam from Philadelphia, PA, USA Slang 101 - Jawn - YouTube 0:00 / 3:41 Slang 101 - Jawn TOON215 57K subscribers Join Subscribe 142 Share Save 3.8K views 3 years ago #Language #Jawn Like, Comment & Subscribe! Examples include: "These jawns are expensive!" Jawn has been used to refer to a cheesesteak (Put some onions on that jawn) and the person with whom someone is cheating on another someone (as in side-jawn). In Philly, dammit, we say what we mean. From the 1910s through the 1970s, roughly six million Black Americans moved to the North, Midwest, and West to escape the oppression of the Jim Crow South. Definitions include: "here" or "this place". The power and reach of jawn is a result of black peoples creative command of language. These are uses that joint did not have in New York City. Or, rather, meanings. During this time, joint was also a way to describe a place as seedy or dangerous. Last edited on Nov 20 1997. noun (slang, chiefly Philadelphia) Something; any object, place or thing. The opium joint led to the word becoming kind of a general purpose slang in the drug world for paraphernalia, and by the 1950s the word was firmly and commonly understood to refer to a cigarette-like roll of marijuana. Its hard to overstate the importance of that study. Musicians. Philadelphia's joint had become its own joint. Southern rap. Like this definition, an informative jawn. In spite of the fact that we are a society of international TV and widespread population shifts, regionalisms are flourishing and staying stubbornly local. It could be when Bryce Harper wears his Clearwooder t-shirt. You might also have noticed that many of the synonyms or related slang words are racist/sexist/offensive/downright appalling - that's mostly thanks to the lovely community over at Urban Dictionary (not affiliated with Urban Thesaurus). So when the sound mutation happened, it only affected that one word, because only that one word was unusual enough to mean something different in Philly than it meant in New York or DC. Be Yoo Dee Full: Beautiful. Any object, being or entity. Sign in to save this event. That jawn is fantastic." Translation: That place is fantastic. Romania: Castles, Ruins, and Medieval Villages, Iceland in Summer: Journey Through a Fabled Land, Monster of the Month w/ Colin Dickey: Mokele-Mbembe, Accidental Discoveries: A Celebration of Historical Mistakes, Antiques and Their Afterlives: Stories from the Collection of Ryan and Regina Cohn, Monster of the Month w/ Colin Dickey: Satanists, Once Upon a Time: Fairy Tale Writing With Anca Szilgyi, Gourds Gone Wild: Growing and Crafting Gourds With Gourdlandia, Playing Ancient Games: History & Mythology With John Bucher, Secrets of Tarot Reading: History & Practice With T. Susan Chang, Why 18th-Century Scots Performed Mock Human Sacrifices Over Cake. Becoming Respectable Race also plays a big role in the words evolution and usage. Its more like jaaawwwwweent. And because so much of that word is now taken up by the aw sound, and the final consonant is basically negated because its now a glottal stop, the diphthong is now more like a monophthong.