Jordan, subs. (old).—1. A chamber-*mug. For synonyms see It. [Short for jordan bottle; a men-mory of the Crusades]. Hence Jordan-headed (Dunbar) an opprobrious epithet.
1383. Chaucer, Canterbury Tales, 12. 240. I pray to God to saue thy gentil corps, And eke thyn urinals, and thy jordanes.
1545. Lindsay, Thrie Estatis, 1. 2478. Your mouth war meit to drinke an wesche jurden.
1592. Greene, Blacke Bookes Messenger, in Works, xi. 33. And so pluckt goodman Iurdaine with all his contents down pat on the curbers pate.
1598. Shakspeare, 1 Henry IV, ii. 1. They will allow us ne'er a jorden.
1614. Jonson, Bartholomew Fair, ii. 1. Good jordan, I know what you'll take to a very drop.
1622. Jonson, Masque of Augurs, in Wks. (Cunningham), iii. 165. My lady will come With a bowl and a broom, And her handmaid with a jordan.
1658. Brome, Covent Garden Weeded, p. Carry up a jordan for the Maidenhead, and a quart of white muscadine for the Blue Boar.
1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Jordain.
1725. New Cant. Dict., s.v.
1728. Pope, Dunciad, ii. 190. Crown'd with the jordan walks contented home.
1765. Goldsmith, Essays, 1. Instead of a crown, our performer covered his brows with an inverted jordan.
1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v.
b.1794. Wolcot [P. Pindar], Peter's Prophecy. Who knows not jordans, fool! from Roman vases?
1887. Dr. Brewer, in N. and Q., S. iii. 79. We always called the Matula the jordan, and into this receptacle all the bedroom slops were emptied.
2. (old).—A stroke with a staff.
1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Jordain. I'll tip him a jordain if I transnear, I will give a blow with my staff if I get up to him.
1859. Matsell, Vocabulum, s.v.
3. (journalistic).—The Atlantic; the ditch (q.v.); the herring-*pond (q.v.).
1875. Daily Telegraph, 10 May. No sooner does a great want of any kind make itself felt, than the means of supplying that want are discovered by our ingenuous cousins on the other Side of jordan.
Adj. (American thieves').—Disagreeable; hard of accomplishment.
1859. Matsell, Vocabulum, s.v.
Jorum, subs. (old).—A drinking-*bowl;
also a portion of liquor;
a neddy (q.v.). Sp. granizo
(= hail).
d.1796. Burns, O May, thy Morn! And here's to them that like oursels Can push about the jorum.
1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Jorum, a jug or large pitcher.
1800. C. Lamb, Letter to Coleridge, Wks. [ed. 1852], ch. v. p. 46. You, for instance, when you are over your fourth or fifth jorum.
1804. John Collins, Scripscrapologia, p. 59. And drown care in a jorum of grog.
1811. Lex. Bal., s.v.
1836. Dickens, Pickwick, xxxviii. p. 333. After dinner, Mr. Bob Sawyer ordered in the largest mortar in the shop, and proceeded to brew a reeking jorum of rum-punch therein.
d.1842. Cunningham, 'Newcastle Beer.' Apply for a jorum of Newcastle beer.
1854. Martin and Aytoun, Bon Gaultier Ballads. 'The Lay of the Lovelorn', Hark my merry comrades call me, bawling for another jorum.
1858. Trollope, Dr. Thorne, xi. He contrived to swallow a jorum of scalding tea.
1867. Latham, Eng. Dict., s.v. Jorum . . . slang, perhaps connected with yarrum.
1870. Mansfield, School-Life at Winchester College, p. 85. Each end and Præfect's mess had their beer served up in a large white jug, or 'bob.' The
