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Jean

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

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See also: jean

English

Pronunciation

Female given name, surname

Male given name

Etymology 1

Variant of Jeanne, from French Jeanne, from Old French Jehane, from Medieval Latin Johanna, variant of Latin Ioanna under influence from Latin Iōhannēs, from Koine Greek Ἰωάννα (Iōánna), from Hebrew יוֹחָנָה (Yôḥānāh, literally “God is gracious”), the feminized form of יְהוֹחָנָן (Yəhōḥānān). Doublet of Ivana, Jana, Jane, Janice, Janis, Jeanne, Jen, Joan, Joanna, Joanne, Johanna, Juana, Shavonne, Sian, Siobhan, Shane, Shaun, Shauna, and Sheena.

The unincorporated community in Nevada, originally named Goodsprings Junction, was renamed Jean on 28 June 1905 by postmaster George Arthur Fayle in honor of his wife.

Proper noun

Jean

  1. A female given name from French.
    • 1788, Robert Burns, Of A' the Airts the Wind Can Blaw:
      There's not a bonnie flower that springs
      By fountain, shaw, or green,
      There's not a bonnie bird that sings
      But minds me o' my Jean.
    • 1866, Louisa May Alcott, chapter II, in Behind a Mask, or a Woman's Power:
      Isn't Jean a pretty name?"
      "Not bad; but why don't you call her Miss Muir?"
      "She begged me not. She hates it, and loves to be called Jean, alone."
    • 1972, Anne Tyler, The Clock Winder, Knopf, page 67:
      He was trying to think of her name; she had come to cook him dinner twice last spring. Jean, maybe. Or Betty. One of these plain names.
  2. An unincorporated community in Nevada.
Derived terms

Etymology 2

From French Jean, from Old French Jehan, from Latin Iōhannēs, from Koine Greek Ἰωάννης (Iōánnēs), from Hebrew יוחנן (Yôḥānān, literally “God is gracious”). Doublet of John, Jack, Johan, Johann, Johannes, Sean, Shaun, Shane, Ian, Evan, Ivan, Juan, and Giovanni.

Proper noun

Jean

  1. A male given name from French.

Etymology 3

A French surname from the male given name, or an English surname which originated as a variant spelling of Jayne or as a toponymic surname referring to Genoa, Italy.

Proper noun

Jean

  1. A surname.
    • 2022 May 12, Dave Davies, “Has Tucker Carlson created the most racist show in the history of cable news?”, in NPR‎, spoken by Nicholas Confessore, archived from the original on 28 June 2023:
      In his cast of characters, you really see a disproportionate focus, I think, on Black women - on Kamala Harris, who he's insinuated only has her job today because of who she dated; to Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, who he's demanded the LSAT scores of - I don't recall him demanding the LSAT scores for Brett Kavanaugh - Karine Jean-Pierre.

Further reading

Anagrams

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Cebuano

Etymology

Borrowed from English Jean, from a Middle English feminine form of John, from Old French Jehane.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈd͡ʒin/ [ˈd͡ʒin̪]

Proper noun

Jean (Badlit spelling ᜇ᜔ᜌᜒᜈ᜔)

  1. a female given name from English [in turn from Hebrew]

French

Etymology

Inherited from Old French Jehan, from Latin Iōhannēs, from Ancient Greek Ἰωάννης (Iōánnēs), from Hebrew יוחנן (Yôḥānān, “Yahweh is gracious”).

Pronunciation

Proper noun

Jean m

  1. John (biblical character).
  2. John (book of the Bible).
  3. a male given name from Hebrew, equivalent to English John, traditionally very popular in France, also common as the first part of hyphenated given names
  4. a surname originating as a patronymic

Derived terms

Descendants

  • → Central Franconian: Schäng
  • → Japanese: ジャン (Jan)
  • → Persian: ژان (žân)
  • → Limburgish: Sjang, Sjeng
  • → Chinese: 讓 / 让 (Ràng) (transliteration)

Italian

Limburgish

Norman

Portuguese

Tagalog

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