jane

See also: Jane, janë, and Janė

English edit

From Old French Jannes (“Genoway”).

jane (plural janes)

(obsolete) A silver Genovese coin, first used in England in the 14th century.
- 14th c, Geoffrey Chaucer, The Rime of Sire Thopas, The Canterbury Tales, 1793, A Complete Edition of the Poets of Great Britain, Volume 1, page 124,
  His robe was of chekelatoun, / That coste many a jane.
- 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto VII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
  Certes was but a common Courtisane, / Yet flat refusd to haue a do with mee, / Because I could not giue her many a Iane.

Alternative forms.

jane (plural janes)

Alternative letter-case form of Jane, a woman.
Alternative spelling of jean
- 1843 April, Thomas Carlyle, “ch. VII, Over-Production”, in Past and Present, American edition, Boston, Mass.: Charles C[offin] Little and James Brown, published 1843, →OCLC, book III (The Modern Worker):
  Ye miscellaneous, ignoble manufacturing individuals, ye have produced too much! We accuse you of making above two-hundred thousand shirts for the bare backs of mankind. Your trousers too, which you have made, of fustian, of cassimere, of Scotch-plaid, of jane, nankeen and woollen broadcloth, are they not manifold?
A female client of a prostitute.
- 2014 March 4, Justin Ling, “Opposition parties shy away from sex-work debate”, in Xtra‎^[1]:
  The Swedish system, seemingly, does not target “janes” (female clients of sex workers).

jane

Alternative forms

jane