1. A pet name or familiar substitute for the feminine name Joan, or Joanna; applied as a common noun to a homely woman, maid-servant, sweetheart or mistress; or as a term of disparagement. Now rare.
[Like Suke, Suky = Susan (Sue), Jack, Jacky = John, and other similar formations, this was prob. partly phonetic, partly a playful perversion. Forms app. related or parallel are the masculine Jagge, Jegge = Jack; Juggin, beside Jankin, Jenkin, Junkin, Jackin; Juck in Juckson, Juxon; all ultimately from John. (See E. W. B. Nicholson, Pedigree of Jack, 1892.)]
1569. Preston, Cambyses, in Hazl., Dodsley, IV. 183. Ruff. I will give thee sixpence to lie one night with thee. Mer. Gogs heart, slave, dost thou think I am a sixpenny jug?
1594. Knack to know a knave, ibid. VI. 511. Then comes a soldier counterfeit, and with him was his jug.
1605. Shaks., Lear, I. iv. 245. Foole.… Whoop Iugge I loue thee.
1611. Cotgr., Iannette, Iug, Iinnie (a woman’s name). Ibid., Ichannette, Iug, or Iinnie.
1631. Brathwait, Whimzies, Launderer, 59. She … will not wet her hand lest shee spoyle the graine of her skinne: Mistris Joan ha’s quite forgot that shee was once jugge.
1632. Rowley, Woman never vexed, I. in Hazl., Dodsley, XII. 115. Clown [to Joan]. Bring him away, Jug.
1707. Mrs. Centlivre, Platon. Lady, III. But hark ye, don’t you marry that ill-manner’d Jug, the Relict of a cheating old rogue.
1830. Monk, Bentley, xv. 424. Joanna … was his favourite child:… having received from him the fondling appellation of Jug in her infancy, she continued to be called Jug Bentley, as long as she remained unmarried.
2. As the second element in local names of various small birds, as bank-jug, the chiffchaff, also the willow warbler; hedge-jug, the long-tailed titmouse. [But cf. JUG sb.3]
1881. Leicestersh. Gloss., Jugg, and Juggy, a diminutive of Joan or Jane…. It is now, I believe, exclusively applied to sundry small birds.
1885. Swainson, Prov. Names Birds, 26. Chiffchaff … Bank-bottle or -jug (Bedfordshire). From the shape and situation of its nest. Ibid., 32. British Long-tailed Titmouse…. The penduline form of the nest, and the feathers which compose the lining, have obtained for the bird the names of Jack in a bottle … Hedge jug.
