Etymology

demijohn

D2E1M3I1J8O1H4N1

Today it means: A large bottle with a short neck, sometimes with two small handles at the neck, sometimes encased in wickerwork. Full definition →

French dame-jeanne
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The story

  1. French · calque ofdame-jeanne
  2. English todaydemijohn

Partial calque of French dame-jeanne (literally “Lady Jane”), of uncertain origin. Note that the French Jeanne (“Jane, feminine of John”) has changed to the masculine form John, rather than the cognate English Jane.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.