John
Pronunciation: /d͡ʒɒn/
The English word “John” has 7 meanings listed here.
proper noun
- Used generically for a man whose actual name may not be known.
- Used frequently to form an idea personified, as in John Bull, John Barleycorn (see derivations below).
- Persons of the Christian Bible: John the Baptist; and names possibly referring to one, two or three persons, frequently called "Saint": John the Apostle, John the Evangelist and John of Patmos (also called John the Divine or John the Theologian).
- The Gospel of St John, a book of the New Testament of the Bible. Traditionally the fourth of the four gospels.
- One of the books in the New Testament of the Bible, the epistles of John (1 John, 2 John and 3 John).
noun
Etymology
From Middle English John, Johan, Johannes, from Anglo-Norman Jehan, Johan, and also Old English Iohannes, both from Late Latin Iōhannēs, variant of Latin Iōannēs, from Koine Greek Ἰωάννης (Iōánnēs), from Biblical Hebrew יוֹחָנָן (Yôḥānān), perhaps contracted from a former יְהוֹחָנָן (Yəhōḥānān, “God is gracious”). Doublet of Jack, Jon, Johan, Johann, Johannes, Jean, Sean, Shane, Shaun, Ian, Ivan,…
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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.