jug

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English jugge,^[2][3] a variant of jubbe, a fairly large container for liquor recorded from about 1390,^[2][3][4] whose own origin is uncertain.^[2][4] The origin of jug is likewise uncertain.^[5][3][4] Most dictionaries think it is probably, or perhaps, a use of the pet name Jug, a familiar form of Joan, Joanna or Jenny,^{[6][7][8][9][10][11]} or of Judith;^[4][12][3] as a common noun jug was applied from 1569 to a homely woman, a maidservant or a sweetheart.^[5][7] The OED notes that the idea goes back to Wedgwood and has analogies, but that no actual evidence linking the vessel to the name has been found.^[5] Skeat pointed out that drinking vessels were also called jacks and jills, after Christian names,^[13] and Klein compares the sense development of jack for a sleeveless coat.^[14] Weekley suggested that jubbe itself came from the name Job, in Middle English often Jubbe or Juppe (whence the surnames Jubb and Jupp), and that jug may be the earlier form altered after the female name.^[12] Johnson (1755) took the word to be Danish.^[15]

Earliest recorded meaning

A container for liquor: before 1477, jugge in one manuscript of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, where the Hengwrt manuscript reads jubbe.^[2][3] The OED's first record of jug for a deep vessel with a handle for holding liquids is from Elyot's Dictionary of 1538,^[5] and Merriam-Webster Unabridged also dates it to 1538;^[9] Etymonline places it in the late 15th century.^[4]

Semantic evolution

Chaucer used jubbe twice, for a large container for ale or wine;^[16][2] Skeat noted that a jubbe held four gallons.^[13] From the 1630s the word also meant a jug with its contents, especially beer as against wine,^[5][7] and the Century Dictionary noted that a jug of ale or beer was usually a pint.^[4] Johnson (1755) defined it as a large drinking vessel with a swelling belly.^[15] The slang sense "prison", also stone jug, is first recorded in 1815–16 and was originally American;^[5][3] Weekley traced it to thieves' cant,^[12] and Barnhart calls it now archaic.^[3] The verb followed the noun: "to drink" in the late 17th century, "to stew in a jug" (as in jugged hare) from 1747, and "to put in jail" from 1841.^[5][7][9] In the United States jug was also slang for a bank (1845);^[5][9] from 1872 the verb also meant to fish with a bait hanging from a floating jug.^[5][9] The jug as a musical instrument, blown across its open mouth, gave the American jug band, recorded from 1886 in Etymonline,^[4] and the jazz instrument is in the OED from 1946.^[5] In the mid-20th century jugs became vulgar slang for a woman's breasts,^[5][17] and climbers began to call a large, easily gripped handhold a jug.^[5] In Scots and the dialects of Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire a jug was a stone bottle for wine or spirits, or a small vessel for making whisky punch.^[18] In Australia and New Zealand it is also an electric kettle,^[10] and in Britain informally a glass of beer.^[10]

Timeline

• c. 1390 – jubbe, a large container for ale or wine, in Chaucer.^[2]
• before 1477 – jugge, a container for liquor.^[2][3]
• 1538 – a deep vessel with a handle for holding liquids.^[5][9]
• c. 1635 – a jug with its contents; the liquid in it, especially beer.^[5]
• 1681 – verb, to use a jug; to drink (now obsolete).^[5]
• 1747 – verb, to stew a hare or rabbit in a jug or jar.^[5][9]
• 1815 – slang, a prison or jail.^[5][3]
• 1841 – verb, to put in jail.^[5]
• 1845 – US slang, a bank.^[5]
• 1872 – verb, US, to fish with a bait attached to a floating jug.^[5]
• 1886 – jug band, a band in which a jug is blown as an instrument.^[4]
• 1957 – slang, a woman's breast; in climbing, a large handhold.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A vessel for holding and pouring liquids, with a handle and usually a spout or lip; the usual American word is pitcher: She filled the water jug at the tap.^[10][9]
2. (US) A large deep container, usually of earthenware or glass, with a narrow mouth and a handle, sometimes with a stopper.^[10][9][17]
3. The amount a jug holds; a jugful: They shared a jug of cider.^[10][9][17]
4. (British, informal) A glass of beer or another alcoholic drink.^[10]
5. (Australia and New Zealand) An electric kettle.^[10]
6. (slang) A jail or prison.^[10][9][17]
7. (vulgar slang) jugs: a woman's breasts.^[17][5]
8. A jug blown across its mouth as a bass instrument, as in a jug band.^[5][7][4]
9. (slang) A bank.^[9][5]

Verb

1. To stew meat, especially hare, in an earthenware jug or jar: jugged hare.^[10][9][17]
2. (slang) To put in jail; to imprison.^[10][9][17]
3. (US) To fish, usually for catfish, with a line hanging from a floating jug.^[9][5]
4. (obsolete, 1681) To use a jug; to drink.^[5][7]

Word family

• jug-eared
• jugful
• jughead
• jug band
• jug wine
• Toby jug
• puzzle jug

Related words

• juggins

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d e f Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
10. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
11. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
12. ^ a b c Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
13. ^ a b Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
14. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
15. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
16. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
17. ^ a b c d e f g The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
18. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)