Joan

Definitions

1. A female given name from French, a feminine form of John.
2. A placeholder or conventional name for any woman, particularly a younger lower-class woman.
   archaic, colloquial, obsolete
3. A kind of close-fitting cap for women popular in the mid-18th century.
   archaic, obsolete

Equivalents

Examples

“Maybe my mother didn't name⟳ me after Joan Crawford after all, I thought; she just told me that to cover⟳ up. She named me after Joan of Arc, didn't she know⟳ what happened to women like⟳ that?”

“Joan Goldstein, the Jewish chair of the group’s chapter in North Jersey, has attended Ramadan celebrations throughout the years — although she said she hasn’t been able to do the full fast yet and still drinks water.”

“Ber. O and I forsoth in loue, I that haue been loues whip?... Well, I will loue, write⟳, sigh⟳, pray, shue, grone, Some men must loue my Ladie, and some Ione.”

“Joan’s as good as this French lady.”

“‘Ioan in the darke is as good as my lady:’ Nay, perhapps better, such ladies there may bee.”

“Bast. A foot of Honor better then I was, But many a many foot of Land⟳ the worse. Well, now can I make⟳ any Ioane a Lady, Good den Sir Richard, Godamercy fellow, And if his name⟳ be George, Ile call⟳ him Peter; For new made honor doth forget⟳ mens names...”

“...when Henslowe notes Heywood's next play⟳ he has a little more respect⟳ for him; for, although the total was again but five pounds, three pounds on February 10, 1598/9 and the rest⟳ two days later, the dramatist on both occasions is Mr. Heywood. The only surviving fragment of the piece, ‘Jonne as good as my ladey’, may be a song in Γυναικεῖον with the burden 'What care I how faire she bee...”

“A wife. But what wife and when? Pretty, yes, but godly and modest. He remembers something Taffy said once: ‘A homely Joan is as good as a lady when the lights are out.’ Aye, Taf, he thinks, but best to marry⟳ one whose face⟳ you can worship⟳. An image of Lucy Tompkins pops unbidden into his mind⟳.”

“A grocer's wife attractd our eyes by a new-fashioned cap called a Joan.”

CEFR level