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Janus/January
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Janus was the Romans god for gates and doors. He is depicted on ancient Roman coins as facing in two directions at once. Therefore, the first month of the year was named after him, since he was, in a sense, guarding the portal of the year. Hence, January. |
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Jim Crow
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A comedian. (the original Jim Crow was a white blackface comedian named Thomas D. Rice who, in 1835, devised a song and dance whose theme went: « Wheel about, turn about/Do just so/Every time I wheel about/I jump Jim Crow. » The act was a great success). |
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The expression Jim Crow came to symbolize, for
the American Blacks, every form of segregation
and discrimination imposed upon them by the
predominantly white power structure. For more
than a century expressions like « Jim Crow laws »
and « Jim Crow schools » were widely heard. |
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Jim Dandy (jim-dandy)
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1. |
An admirable person or thing. |
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A fictional hero; the one who will solve all problems. |
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John Doe
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Any man at all: the mythical average man. From the name invented anciently to stand for the fictitious lessee in court proceedings of ejectment and thereafter used wherever a fictitious person is needed. |
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Johnny Appleseed
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Nickname of John Chapman 1775-1847. An American pioneer, famous for establishing orchards in the Middle Western United States. |
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Johnny pin
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Johns Hopkins
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Johns Hopkins (1795-1873. A philanthropist after
whom the world renowned Johns Hopkins Hospital,
Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and Johns
Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland,
U.S.A. are named. The name "Johns Hopkins"
refers to these institutions. |
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Jot down
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Jukebox
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1. |
Machine usually found in restaurants and saloons which one puts money into and then selects a song and the machine plays the selected song. (The earliest jukeboxes were known as “juke organs” and were coin-operated phonographs which produced sounds like those heard from barrel organs or hurdy-gurdies. Juke, not surprisingly, is Gullah dialect and means “disorderly”, as in “disorderly house”). |
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Jump on
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1. |
to assault verbally ; to reprove; to reprimand. |
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Jumping-off place
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1. |
a point to start from or begin something. |
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