jane
jane Lexical Profile
jane Game Scores & Validity
• noun
American (dated slang) A girl or woman, especially a girlfriend or sweetheart.
"In classic hardboiled detective novels of the 1930s, the protagonist often refers to a mysterious woman simply as a jane."
(historical) A durable twilled cotton cloth or fustian, historically used for making garments and footwear and functionally related to modern jean.
"During the nineteenth century, sturdy work trousers and summer shoes were frequently tailored from heavy jane."
American (informal) A public restroom or lavatory designated for women (formed by analogy with 'john').
"She excused herself from the dinner table to visit the jane before the main course arrived."
(historical) A small silver coin exported from Genoa into England during the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries.
"Medieval English merchants grew wary of accepting the low-value Genoese silver coin known as a jane."
• Rhymes for jane
Word Origin & Etymology
In its textile sense, derived from Middle English Janewaye ('Genoa'), the Italian port city from which durable twilled cotton fustian was originally imported into England; in its slang sense for a woman, derived from the common female given name Jane, which comes via Old French Jehanne from Hebrew Yohanan ('Yahweh is gracious').