johnny-, pfx — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

johnny- pfx

also John-

[modern use tends to be facetious/ironic]

1. used as a pfx, as in johnny-darkie, johnny-gyppo etc; occas. as sfx.

1827		Standard (London) 20 Oct. 1/2: The manner in which he busked his plaid and adjusted his bonnet argued a consciousness that so smart a John Highlansman as himself would not pass unnoticed.
1840		R.H. Dana Two Years before the Mast (1992) 172: We saw a battle between two Sandwich Islanders and a shark. Johnny Shark had been playing about our boat for some time, driving away the fish, and showing his teeth at our bait.
1855		Oxford Chron. 9 June 2/6: The Russians are usually called Johnny Ruskies.
1882		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 7 Oct. 6/4: ‘Never you mind us, Johnny Fresh! [...] We won’t be taken by anyone but the devil. We’re a suicide surprise party, we are!’.
1883		Nottingham Eve. Post 13 Sept. 4/1: For that Heathen Chinese / Is a hard not to crack / [...] /‘Heads I win tails you lose,’ / Johnny Pigtail might say.
1902		‘Banjo’ Paterson ‘Johnny Boer’ in Rio Grande’s Last Race (1904) 164: But when you’re fighting Johnny Boer you have to use your head.
1915		F. Garrett diary 5 Nov. 🌐 They bombed Jonnie Turk out and took their trench.
1915		Northern Star (Lismore, NSW) 15 May 2/7: For the Frenchman we have [...] Johnny Crapaud.
1918		P. Macgill Diggers 105: He’s a splendid man, Johnnie Turk, a damned good fellow.
1919		A. Baer Two & Three 18 Apr. [synd. col.] The near-sighted boys [...] are perturbed about old John Barkeep.
1922		E. Raymond Tell England (1965) 241: Love to Johnny Turk.
1924		G. Henderson Keys to Crookdom 409: Johnny-yegg. Safe blower.
1934		H. Roth Call It Sleep (1977) 301: Den yuh kin Johnny-high-dive all yuh wants an’ yuh’ll never hit bottom.
1936		(con. 1830s–60s) ‘Miles Franklin’ All That Swagger 296: General Buller [...] would have Johnny Boer back in his place before the Australian contingent could land in Africa.
1943		Pittsburgh Courier (PA) 21 Aug. 21/1: The vacant stares of loneliness for Johnny Doughboy.
1944		Ted Yates ‘I’ve Been Around’ 31 Mar. [synd. col.] [In] World War I ‘Shirt hunts’ [i.e. for lice] were standard idle hour pastime of Johnny Doughboy, Sr.
1961		R. Gover One Hundred Dollar Misunderstanding 71: Lil ol Johnny-cock jes a-hangin loose.
1973		Eble Campus Sl. Mar. 2: John Stud – a male who thinks he is knowledgeable about styles and women.
1997		N. Barlay Curvy Lovebox 28: Even [paranoid] about Johnnie Gimp in orthopaedic shoes on the high street.
1999		Guardian Rev. 12 June 12: This is a jingoistic nation, whose citizens love nothing more than to smash Johnny Foreigner into submission.
1999		Guardian Rev. 10 July 12: That would rub Johnny Foreigner’s nose in his own inferiority.
2000		J.J. Connolly Layer Cake 33: The old boy was just another crazy and a Johnny Darky into the bargain.
2000		T. Udo Vatican Bloodbath 98: That was just a [...] ploy to throw Johnny Wop off the scent.
2001		(con. 1964–8) J. Ellroy Cold Six Thousand 397: The cops saw him. Looks travelled — check Johnny Fed.
2005		Guardian G2 16 Nov. 7: Johnny Foreigner need not apply.
2024		J. Meades Empty Wigs (t/s) 123: Mention it not to Johnny Frog but his is a nation that cries rape only after it has enjoyed multiple orgasms! [ibid.] 198: He was up to his neck in some wheeze with Johnny Tuareg.
2024		G. MacDonough Bluesky 26 Jan. 🌐 A real silly-season story: the British know nothing about tea: you put Johnny T Bag in a mug and pour on boiling water.

In compounds

Johnny Congress (n.) [SE Congress]

(US) the US Congress.

1817		Guardian of Liberty 12 Apr. 4/1: O! wo’nt you hear What roaring cheer, Was spent by Johnny Congress O! And how so gay They doubled their pay, And doubled the people’s taxes O! [DA].
1827		Western Monthly Rev. I 445: In the rural, but significant speech of the swains, this body is called Johnny congress [DA].

Johnny Crapose (n.) (also Jean Crapaud, …Crapeau, …Crappeau, John Crapeau, ...Crappoo, Johney Croppi, Johnny Crapaud, ...Crapeau, …Crappo, ...Croppo) [Fr. crapaud, a toad]

a Frenchman.

1803		J. Wetherell Adventures of John Wetherell (1954) 28–9 May 49: Johney croppi had measured his distance pretty well for they hove a Shell that burst over the Ship.
1810		Kentish Gaz. 6 Apr. 4/2: I have just rammed home a jolly 12-pounder, as a present to Johnny Crappo.
1818		‘A. Burton’ Adventures of Johnny Newcome III 131: They thought ‘Jean Crappeau’s mighty stout, He surely means to fight it out.’.
1833		M. Scott Tom Cringle’s Log (1862) 379: You John Crapeau, and you Jack Spaniard.
1830		N. Ames Mariner’s Sketches 222: The Frenchman [...] had a been captured three times [...] a ‘singular coincidence’ that ‘Johnny Crapaud’ did mnot seem disposed to forget or forgive.
1835		C.F. Hoffman Winter in West (1835) II 246: The whimsical application of soubriquets is [...] religiously kept up [...] the Tuckahoes and Coheese of Virginia, on either side of the Blue Ridge, complimenting each other with as much amiability as do John Bull and Monsieur Jean Crapeau [DA].
1836		‘Devoted to Mirth and Sarcasm’ Splifincator 1:7 27 Aug. 2/1: Johnny Bull has at length obliged his naughty Parliament to reduce the stamp duty on newspapers to one penny, and Johnny Croppo, on the other side of the channel is obliged to allow the ‘citizen king’ a guard of eighty thousand soldiers.
1836		‘Jack Nastyface’ [Wm Robinson] Nautical Economy 15: [I]f one of Johnny Crapeau’s shots [...] knocks my head off, you will take all my effects.
1839		J.F. Cooper Pathfinder (1843) 240: We are no Johnny Crapauds to hide ourselves behind a [...] fort on account of a puff of wind.
1840		Champion (London) 2 Feb. 7/1: It was lucky for Johnny Croppo.
1841		W.J. Neale Paul Periwinkle 337: But you don’t know Johnny Crappo as well as I do.
1842		Whip & Satirist of NY & Brooklyn (NY) 26 Nov. n.p.: That little Frenchman, John Crappoo, visits houses of ill fame so frequently .
1842		Whip & Satirist of NY & Brooklyn (NY) 24 Dec. n.p.: The Johnny crappoes responded [...] with a three times three.
1849		Morn. Post 17 Feb. 6/5: Who’d ha’ thought to see John Bull for his roast beef go to Johnny Crapaud.
1854		Delhi Sketch Bk 1 Oct. 128/1: [T]he sun shines hon the roofs all day it makes it wery ple’zont has Joney Crop O says.
1854		Bell’s Life in Sydney 12 Aug. 2/6: [heading] Johnny Crepraw an the Spree. Four sailors, belonging to the French steamer in our harbour [etc.].
1856		Norfolk Chron. 19 Jan. 3/5: ‘Uncle john,’ his fighting fixings all at a point, had got ‘Johnny Crappo’ at his back instead of his belly.
1860		T. Haliburton Season Ticket 256: It’s my belief that these Johnny Crapauds, some foggy day or night, will pay us a visit.
1861		Examiner (London) 23 Nov. 4/3: Out 68-pounder smooth-bored guns [...] will pound Johnny Crappo’s ribs.
1875		Morpeth Herald 17 Apr. 6/4: ‘Here Johnny Crappo, give it to me,’ said Villers.
1879		W.J. Barry Up and Down 57: I called upon Johnny Crapaud to defend himself.
1883		Exeter & Plymouth Gaz.14 Sept. 3/2: What do you think of it Johnny Crapaud / This rumour from far Cathay?
1887		G. Davis Recoll. Sea-Wanderer 49: The boys give him no peace because, poor soul, he is a 'Johnny Crapeau,' as they call it.
1890		Northern Echo 24 June 4/5: I hand the bun to Johnny Crappo.
1891		F.W. Carew Autobiog. of a Gipsey 283: Johnny Crapaud no doubt thought that this would have the effect.
1896		‘Frederick Benton Williams’ (H.E. Hamblen) On Many Seas 332: We would straighten out our legs, and Johnny Crapaud would slide off into the little alley-way at the foot of the divan, — more variegated French blasphemy.
1903		Exeter & Plymouth Gaz.17 Nov. 5/7: To a Briton the Frenchman is ‘Johnny Crapaud’ or ‘Froggie’.
1904		Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 22 June 3/5: The sun-burnt, damper-encrusted battlers of W.A. are here invited to [...] drop a tear of anguish for the Johnny Crapauds who tramped the prodigious distance of 10 miles.
1909		J. Ware Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era 160/2: Johnny Crapose (Peoples’). Frenchmen. The second word is ‘crapaud’, but how comes it that this word has been accepted in conjunction with Johnny to describe a Frenchman?
1918		G.E. Griffin ‘The Men Who Were’ Ballads of the Regiment 44: The English, the Irish, the ‘Johnny Crapauds’.
1929		Aberdeen Jrnl 12 July 6/3: In the old days the Frenchman's action might have set 'John Bull' and 'Johnny Crapaud' at each others' throats.
1938		H. Asbury Sucker’s Progress 45: Americans, to whom a Creole or Frenchman was Johnny Crapaud.
1983		Maledicta VII 22: French and French Canadian immigrants in this country were called crapaud, jean crapaud, and johnny crapaud. And crapaud was often pronounced ‘crappo’ and ‘crow-poo’ to garnish the loathsome frog.

2. (N.Z. prison) a coinventional individual, in prison conext a first-time offender; neither has a criminal record.

2001

D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 96/1: Johnny lunchbox (also Joe lunchbox) n. a 'straight', naive person; a person without a criminal record; an inmate with no previous convictions, a first-time offender.

Johnny Reb (n.) (also Johnnie Reb, Johnnie Red) [SE rebel]

(US) a Southerner, esp. a fighter for the Confederacy.

1862		in R.G. Carter Four Brothers in Blue (1978) 28 Dec. 215: If I could only meet ‘Johnny Reb’ at the point of the bayonet at close quarters.
1864		J.F. Brobst letter in Brobst Well Mary, Civil War Letters 87: If the Johnny Rebs don’t rub me out or shoot an arm or leg off me [...] I will not look much different.
1872		(con. US Civil War) Schele De Vere Americanisms 280: Southerners were Secesh or Rebs, or, more good-naturedly, Johnny Rebs.
1890		(con. 1860s) W. Goss Recollections of a Private 225: Johnnie Reb has got all he wants of fighting this time!
1903		Ade ‘Mr Lindsay on “San Jewan”’ in In Babel 250: A six-foot Johnny Reb that jus’ raises up on his everlastin hind legs an’ comes at you like a runaway horse.
1908		‘O. Henry’ ‘Hostages to Momus’ in Gentle Grafter (1915) 201: The celebrated food that enabled every Johnny Reb to lick one and two-thirds Yankees for nearly four years at a stretch.
1914		E. Wittmann ‘Clipped Words’ in DN IV:ii 143: Johnny Reb, from Johnny Rebel.
1932		(con. 1917–19) Dos Passos Nineteen Nineteen in USA (1966) 483: The Indiana farm boys had turned out to shoot down Johnnie Red.
1944		Chicago Daily News 15 Jan. 3/3: President Roosevelt’s Democrats, whether New Deal, win-the-war or Johnny Reb in category, are having unity troubles [DA].
1967		(con. 1951) McAleer & Dickson Unit Pride (1981) 13: ‘This ain’t the worst place to be in.’ ‘O.K., Johnny Reb,’ I came back, ‘name a worse one.’.
1978		Maledicta II:1+2 (Summer/Winter) 162: Johnny Reb Any Southerner today. Originally meant anyone fighting for the South in the Civil War.
1989		Hackworth & Sherman About Face (1991) 181: Right – like telling Johnny Reb not to click his heels together when ‘Dixie’ was played.