Meanings
joanie1
plural joanies
- dialectalhistoricalA small ornament of glass or china.
"Your dogs!" cried Mr. Bridle. "You ninnyhammer! Why, us could buy a pack of they joanies in Newton for half-a-crown."
1901, Eden Phillpotts, The Good Red Earth: A Novel, Doubleday, Page & Co., page 1344 more examples
Miss Romilly shares her mother's interest in beautiful and artistic things. Her great hobby is the collecting of "Joanies," or cottage pottery, and she has some very valuable as well as peculiar examples in her delightful country home, Huntington Park, Herefordshire.
1903 November 18, “Small Talk of the Week”, in The Sketch: A Journal of Art and Actuality, volume XLIV, number 564, London: The Illustrated London News and Sketch, →OCLC, page 154, column 2Lady Romilly also writes both prose and poetry, and has made a collection of old-fashioned pottery known to rustics as "joanies".
1906 April 29, “Bridal and Other Gowns”, in The New York Times, volume 55, number 17627, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, unnumbered pageShe thinks more of the joanies and gimcracks on her parlour mantelshelf than she do of you, and it's your duty in my opinion to plan a proper eye-opener for Rose.
1924, Eden Phillpotts, Redcliff, London: Hutchinson & Co., page 224The 'joanies' began to deteriorate in the last decades of the century, the boy and girl figures beginning to acquire an odious simpering quality.
1965, Mary Peter, Collecting Victoriana, Frederick A. Praeger, Publishers, published 1968, page 103
Joanie2
- A diminutive of the female given name Joan, from French.
Joanie3
plural Joanies
- USslangA young woman who dresses in an out-of-date and unfashionable manner.
I mean phones are like mondo cool, because it's like you don't know what to wear until you check it out with at because they want you to show up looking like a joanie, you know?
1982 October 28, Valley Mom [pseudonym], “Down in the valley, the valley so excellent...”, in Daily Record, volume 83, number 126, Morristown, N.J.: Morristown Daily Record, Inc., →OCLC, page 253 more examples
My Mom, who takes night classes in painting and stuff at Valley College and knows about art, except she still wears totally base designer jeans with elastic butts and comes off like a total Joanie, has these other books by Judith Krantz, like Scruples and Princess Daisy.
1983 February, “Review of Books”, in Art in America, New York, N.Y.: Art In America, Inc., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 15You might want to stop being such a total Joanie and move the pony to the back of your head. I wonder if all those years of wearing the side pony has done brain damage? Maybe that would explain why you still wear it.
2008, Laura Ross, The Valley Girl Turns 40, New York, N.Y.; Bloomington, I.N.: iUniverse, Inc., →ISBN, page 17Nothing to report. No mites, no fleas, nothing," said Larry, "But some of the poor Joanies in the main room were scratching their necks like there was a company louse picnic. We baited some double-sticky tape and roach traps, but I doubt they'll catch anything."
2017, Jeffrey A[lan] Lockwood, Murder on the Fly, Fayetteville, A.R.: Pen-L Publishing, →ISBN, page 18
Origin
Joanie · proper noun
From Joan + -ie. Doublet of Ivanka, Jan, Janelle, Janet, Janey, Janine, Jeanette, Jeanie, Jeannette, Jeannine, Jen, Jenna, Jenny, Jessy, Jo, Jody, Juanita, Shanae, Sinead, and Vanna.
Full word history & related roots →Joanie · noun
Possibly a reference to Joanie Cunningham, a character from the US sitcom Happy Days (1974–1984), set in the 1950s and 1960s. Compare Joan (“a placeholder or conventional name for a younger lower-class woman”).
Full word history & related roots →Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with joanie
Cite this entry
joanie. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/joanie
“joanie.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/joanie. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “joanie,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/joanie.
Source: joanie on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.