Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a generic term for a man.

1593		Nashe Choise of Valentines (1899) 4: Where to, the contrie franklins flock-meale swarme, And Jhon [sic] and Jone come marching arme in arme.
1618		G. Mynshul Essayes of Prison n.p.: Three kinds of persons [...] 1. A Parasite. 2. A Iohn indifferent. 3. A true harted Titus.
1770		Cheats of London Exposed 88: Plain John is liable to be deluded by the pomp of a train, or glare of a necklace.
1792		New Cheats of London Exposed 8: If poor John catches at the bait, they then put the liquor about briskly.
1908		H. Green Maison De Shine 10: I wisht I was a big lady, an’ I’d have more Johns buyin’ me joolry.
1910		‘Doss Chiderdoss’ ‘Games For Girls’ Sporting Times 20 Aug. 1/3: In this paper here / Is a paragraph worth studyin’ by all the Jills and Johns.
1923		‘Gila Monster Route’ in N. Anderson Hobo 195: But the john had a bundle, the worker’s plea, / So he gave him a floater and set him free.
1928		M.C. Sharpe Chicago May (1929) 205: Present day men have nothing on some of the Old Testament Johns for dirt.
1932		‘R. Scully’ Scarlet Pansy 31: A knowledge of ‘Johns’ had not yet been vouchsafed to her.
c.1935		‘Mae West in “The Hip Flipper”’ [comic strip] in B. Adelman Tijuana Bibles (1997) 92: She could at least find a john who wouldn’t send her home with hot nuts.
1949		R. Park Poor Man’s Orange 234: Who’da thought it, eh, and her with the stren’th of ten when it comes to bashing johns over the ned.
1962		A. La Guma Walk in the Night (1968) 4: Me, I never work for no white john. [Ibid.] 115: You know you can’t fight no white john here.
1962		(con. 1940s) G. Mandel Wax Boom 17: ‘Who’s the guy with the Buffalo Bill bush on his face?’ ‘Some new John.’.
1989		H. Rawson Dict. of Invective (1991) 280: Other generics include: [...] John, any man [...], whether alone, as in the prostitute’s faceless john, or in such combinations as John Bull (an Englishman).

2. (also Johnnie, Johnny) a male servant, private or public.

1700		‘Dunmore Kate’ in Playford Pills to Purge Melancholy II 221: This Footman swore he was a Lord [...] But when she heard one call out John, / Up rose her Spark, and strait was gone .
1707		Fifteen Comforts of a Wanton Wife 4: She makes a League with John her Man.
1797		Sporting Mag. Apr. X 60/2: The Servant lets him in, with dismal face, [...] John’s countenance as rueful looked, and grim.
1833		‘Black John’ in Out-and-Outer in Spedding & Watt (eds) Bawdy Songbooks (2011) IV 145: Such a leg for a stocking no Johnny could show, / All the lick-dishes envied him much.
1838		Crim.-Con. Gaz. 29 Sept. 47/1: John had like to have lost the carpet bag which contained my toggery.
1843		R.S. Surtees Handley Cross (1854) 41: Out comes the portly butler with a ‘Now then! Missis coming down!’ whereupon the Johnnies [...] take a position on each side of the barouche door.
1843		R.S. Surtees Handley Cross (1854) 416: Johns and Jehus touch their lace-daubed ’ats.
1851		R.S. Surtees Young Tom Hall (1926) 98: ‘Now Johnny,’ exclaimed the colonel, as none of them [i.e. footmen] seemed inclined to lend a hand — ‘now, Johnny [...] open the door and let the ladies out’.
1853		R.S. Surtees Mr Sponge’s Sporting Tour 76: Mr Jawleyford started life with two most unimpeachable Johns [...] silk-stockinged and pumped in full-dress Jawleyford livery .
1853		R.S. Surtees Mr Sponge’s Sporting Tour 188: In those days great people went about like great people, [...] with plethoric three-corner-hatted coachmen, and gigantic, lace-bedizened, quivering-calved Johnnies.
1870		Sportsman (London) 2 Feb. 2/1: ‘Is they low church or high church, sir?’ asked the waiter of the host [...] ‘Why, John?’ was the natural query.
1879		London Life 30 Aug. 6/2: Is it any wonder that John and Jeames [...] smile cynically to one another and wink.

3. (US) an Englishman [abbr. John Bull n.¹ ].

1812		J. Wetherell Adventures of John Wetherell (1954) 263: We are not franks but true-blooded Johns!
1826		T. Moore in Times 14 Apr. 3: But cheer up John, Sawney, and Paddy, / The King is your father they say.
1831		Satirist (London) 22 May 49/1: [advert] Reform is the word with Johns, Sandies, and Pats, / And why not applied to corruption in hats?
1843		Bellew Memoirs of a Griffin I 269: That Irish reciprocity of rights which John and Jonathan are so prone to patronize.
1853		Life in Boston & N.Y. (Boston, MA) 1 Oct. n.p.: An Englishman never dances above the waist [...] John enters into a cotillion not so much to enjoy himself as to do penance.
1881		‘Jolly’ John Nash [perf.] ‘Don’t Talk to Me about Invasion’ 🎵 John spent his money then on ships and guns and men, / [...] /One Englishman was then as good as three Frenchmen.
1891		in Punch 31 Jan. 54: Ten art’cles in your Times, JOHN, / Hev giv me good advice. / I mind th’ old Slavery crimes, JOHN. / I don’t need tellin’ twice.
1900		E.W. Rogers [perf. Marie Lloyd] The Red and The White and The Blue 🎵 John and Jonathan brothers for ever.
1905		H. Green Actors’ Boarding House (1906) 125: Want to be careful of those Johns on the other side.

4. (also John Chow, Johnny) a derog. term for a Chinese man [abbr. John Chinaman n.].

1853		Alta Calif. 20 Apr. 2/2: The May Adams brought 118 ‘Johns’ from the terrestrial kingdom of heaven [DA].
1854		Soulé, Gihon & Nisbet Annals of S.F. 379: ‘John’s’ person does not smell very sweetly.
1854		Bell’s Life in Sydney 29 July 2/7: John Chinaman, so called from want of knowing his true Celestial appellation, was charged with absenting him- self from the service of his master. Bench–What is your name? John–Cheewi Chowi Chuwi.
c.1860		in ‘Mark Twain’ Innocents at Home (1872) 395: John likes it [opium], though; it soothes him; he takes about two dozen whiffs, and then rolls over to dream, Heaven only knows what, for we could not imagine by looking at the soggy creature.
1868		Sportsman 2 Dec. 2/1: Notes on News [...] [T]he ‘red’ candidate bargained for so much per head that the headman should poll all his Chinese for him. The ‘blue’ [...] gave a trifle more. John, however, voted for neither.
1870		B. Harte Luck of Roaring Camp (1873) 245: My acquaintance with John has been made up of weekly interviews, involving the adjustment of the washing accounts, so that I have not been able to study his character from a social view-point or observe him in the privacy of the domestic circle.
1876		Brisbane Courier 30 Aug. 6/2: John Chinaman has once more outwitted the Fanqui in the matter of petty gambling. In spite of special Acts [...] John perseveres in indulging in the delights of fan-tan and pak-a-pu.
1878		F.H. Hart Sazerac Lying Club 208: To Chinatown the Indians resort for a miserable compound miscalled whisky, which is furnished them by the keen ‘Johns’ at an enormous profit.
1880		Bulletin (Sydney) 1 May 3/3: The Chinese libel law is understood to be a peculiar one. All same, welly good, Johnny.
1883		Anderson Intelligencer (SC) 1 Mar. 1/5: There are now in Augusta about a score of Chinamen [...] John has come to stay.
1887		Bulletin (Sydney) 22 Oct. 8/1: Though John’s an evil-smelling cuss / (Which rather sounds like libel) / He might be made a little wuss / By taking up the Bible / And acting like believers do; / So, therefore, we agree then / You show your common sense, Chin Foo, / In still remaining heathen.
1890		H. Nisbet ‘Bail Up!’ 48: ‘Seeky wolk [...] anything you like.’ ‘Can you give this Johnny work, Mr. Graves?’.
1892		H. Lawson ‘Jones’s Alley’ in Roderick (1972) 37: Mrs Aspinall even sought the sympathy of ‘John’ the Chinaman.
1894		Mirror of Life 3 Feb. 3/4: One of the strangest superstitions of Chinamen is the awe with which they regard the cockroach. John holds the ugly black pest as something sacred.
1894		Truth (Sydney) 19 Feb. 3/7: There is but one luxury upon which John will spend money with appreciative liberality, and that is on what is mainly a product of his own land — opium.
1896		‘Frederick Benton Williams’ (H.E. Hamblen) On Many Seas 58: His shot and the cheer of his crew having warned the Chinamen of his approach, [and] as his crew were armed with six- shooters, ‘John’ soon found it advisable to keep his head below the rail.
1903		J. Conrad Typhoon 140: His brusque ‘Come along, John; make look see’ set the Chinaman in motion at his heels.
1906		Sun. Times (Perth) 23 Dec. 1/1: The latest from Northam is an Chow under-age girl episode [and] when the girlie complained john was threatened with the law.
1908		K. McGaffey Sorrows of a Show Girl Ch. xvi: Bartenders are called George just like Chinamen are called John? What are you trying to bale out to me?
1910		Sun. Times (Perth) 24 Apr. 3rd sect. 17/4: But the joke is that Mr. P. is daily served and waited on at his club by yellow-fanged Chows, one of them being the identical John whose patronage of a store was a bar to his own exclusive custom.
1911		B. Fisher Mutt & Jeff 2 Oct. [synd. cartoon] — No, John, you can’t spend a cent, you’re out guest. — Melicans heap fine gentlemen.
1912		D. Lowrie My Life in Prison 26: The Chinaman was much elated at the way I took it [...] ‘How long have you been here, John?’ I inquired.
1912		Truth (Wellington) 22 June 1/4: Opium dens [...Where John Chow leaves stinks behind him.
1912		Truth (Wellington) 6 Apr. 6/4: ‘John’ (Chinaman) railed off the wheat from the chaff.
1922		P.A. Rollins Cowboy 165: If [...] the cook were a Chinaman, these entitlements of cookie and old lady severally were supplanted by ‘John’ and ‘that damned chink’.
1923		‘Bartimeus’ ‘A Man in the Making’ Seaways 196: ‘Go ahead, John!’ said Euan magnificently to the coolie.
1931		Irwin Amer. Tramp and Und. Sl. 111: John. – [...] a Chinaman, from the days when no one made any effort to find out what this Chinese or that was called, and merely used the convenient ‘John.’.
1943		J.A.W. Bennett ‘English as it is Spoken in N.Z.’ in AS XVIII:2 Apr. 89: A Chinese (generally known as ‘John’) is a Chow (a derivative of ‘Chowchow’).
1948		P. Johnston Gold Rush 11/1: The despised ‘Johns’ were permitted to pan gold in peace, provided they paid their foreign miners’ tax when it was due [DA].
1988		McGill Dict. of Kiwi Sl. 63/2: john Chinese, from mid C19 goldminers calling them John Chinamen.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. [as cit. 1988].

5. a general term of address, orig. of white men by immigrants etc, irrespective of actual name, e.g. Hello, John, got a new motor etc.

1850s		in R.W. Paul Mining Frontiers of the Far West (1963) [illus. caption] 108: Strings of Chinamen pass, and greet you in broken English with ‘how do you do, John?’.
1919		DN V 37: John, n. Proper first name, applied to any male Indian by the whites.
1954		G. Lamming Emigrants (1980) 111: ‘’Ave ’alf pint o’ bitter John?’ ‘My name aint John.’.
1957		S. Selvon Ways of Sunlight 130: ‘John,’ Rahamut turn to the English fellar, ‘you didn’t witness everything?’.
1982		J. Sullivan ‘The Yellow Peril’ Only Fools and Horses [TV script] John, you know, John, it’s the expression, cockney expression. Alright John and all that.
1984		A. Sayle Train to Hell 79: ‘I don’t believe it!’ shouted Slobbo. ‘I’m your biggest fan! Hello John got a new motor!’.
1996		J. Cameron It Was An Accident 56: Buy one here one and a half, sell it round Africa four to five. No problem john.
2002		J. Cameron Hell on Hoe Street 114: Say no more John.
2023		M. Herron Secret Hours 163: [He] also went on to address the barman, two other drinkers, the quiz machine and his own cigarette packet as John.

6. (S.Afr.) a generic term for any male black servant.

1894		E. Glanville Fair Colonist 76: ‘What is your name, John?’ — all black men being Johns when they are not Boys .
1948		O. Walker Kaffirs are Lively 27: Not all of them are strictly black, round-headed and answering to the generic names of ‘John’, ‘Mary’, ‘Jim’ or ‘Annie’.
1951		letter in Natal Mercury Apr. 8 11: So far as the expression ‘John’ goes, what else could be nicer or more friendly than ‘What can I do for you, John?’ when serving a Native from behind a counter when you do not know his name. Would Mr Jill say to him. What can I do for you, Sir? as if he were a European? It is also incorrect to say that these two expressions (‘John’ and ‘boy’) are used on Africans only: they are used on Indians also, in fact with any non-European [DSAE].
1968		J. Lelyveld in Cole & Flaherty House of Bondage 15 : A large proportion of whites don’t trouble themselves to call their servants by their own names, sometimes they use a common name like John whether it belongs to the man or not [DSAE].
1977		Weekend World 31 July Cl: None of these terms has ever found favour with blacks ... The days when we would be called ‘John’, ‘Boy’, ‘Meid’, and so on are over [DSAE].
1981		C. Hope Separate Development 46: ‘What is your name?’ [...] ‘It’s John, baas. My name is John.’ I began to understand then that not only were they everywhere, but they were all called John.

7. (US) a jack in poker [punning on the name Jack].

1906		J.W. Carr ‘Words from Northwest Arkansas’ in DN III:ii 143: john, n. Facetious name of the knave or jack in a pack of cards.
1928		Hecht & MacArthur Front Page Act I: How’d I know you were out? Two Johns. Ladies, etc.