Jordan. Expresses the Hebrew for “the flowing.”
Journeyman. An artisan who hires himself out to labour, conformly to the French jour, day, a day labourer.
Juan Fernandez. After the navigator, who discovered it in 1567. On this isle Alexander Selkirk was the sole inhabitant from September 1704 until February 1707. Daniel Defoe made this adventurer the hero of his celebrated story “Robinson Crusoe.”
Jubilee Plunger. The sobriquet of Ernest Benzon, who lost £250,000 on the turf in two years after embarking upon his betting career in 1887, the Jubilee year of Queen Victoria’s reign.
Judd Street. The property of Sir Andrew Judd, Lord Mayor of London in 1551. By his will he bequeathed it to the endowment of a school at Tonbridge, his native place.
Judges’ Walk. So called because a number of judges and barristers of the King’s Bench made themselves temporary habitations in tents on this breezy height of Hampstead during the Great Plague.
Jug. Thieves’ slang for prison. See “[In the Jug].”
Juggins. A fool, a reckless fellow, so called after a noted character of this name, who about twenty years ago squandered his whole fortune by reckless betting on the turf.
Juggler. From the French jougleur, a jester or miscellaneous entertainer who was the invariable companion of a troubadour during the Middle Ages.
Julep. An American spirituous beverage, also a preparation to make medicines less nauseous. The word is derived from the Arabic julab, rose-water.