jorum

plural jorums · alternative joram

1. A large vessel for drinking (usually alcoholic beverages).

   I am here as Justice of Quorum; / And in my cabin's fore end, / I've a bed for a friend, / With a clean fire-side and a jorum.

   1820, “The Farmer”, in The Harp of Orpheus, Derby, Derbyshire: H. Mozley, Brook-Street, →OCLC, page 212

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   Then come, put the jorum about, / And let us be merry and clever, / Our hearts and our liquors are stout, / Here's the Three Jolly Pigeons for ever.

   1773 (first performance), Oliver Goldsmith, She Stoops to Conquer, in Bell's British Theatre, volume IX, London: George Cawthorn, OCLC 472479652, page 19

   In battle one day, with a jorum of flip, / Jack, while crossing the deck, began reeling, / And fell, for his leg was shot off at the hip, / But the liquor he just saved from spilling.

   1841, C[harles] Dibdin, Jun., “All in His Glory”, in Charles Dibdin; Thomas [John] Dibdin, Songs, Naval and National, of the Late Charles Dibdin, London: John Murray, Albemarle Street, OCLC 558164904, page 268

   They ketched hould of aich other, gasping as he stepped down out of the air to the ground, an' wishin' them the top of the avening, he brushed past, walked bould to the bar an' briskly called for three jorums of whusky.

   1901–1902, Herminie Templeton [Kavanagh], Darby O'Gill and the Good People, New York, N.Y.: McClure, Phillips, published 1903, →OCLC, page 286

   You see, at that time, in the Duchy of Brunswick, or Braunschweig, now part of Germany, it was the custom for friendly groups to drink from the same receptacle, in this case a jorum, or basin—a good idea, rightly understood, in that it made for communitas, or community […] .

   1988, J[ames] F[arl] Powers, “Priestly Fellowship”, in Wheat that Springeth Green, New York, N.Y.: Alfred A. Knopf, ISBN 978-0-394-49609-2; republished New York, N.Y.: The New York Review of Books, 2000, ISBN 978-0-940322-24-0, page 175

2. The contents, or quantity of the contents, of such a vessel.

   Let Politicians a' gae daft, / Their tricks, how I abhor 'em! / Di'el nick the silly, wily craft, / They're no worth half a jorum. / So push about.

   1833 July, “No. III. Evenings at Saint's, by the Society of Free Fellows”, in Sumner Lincoln Fairfield, editor, The North American Magazine, volume II, number IX, Philadelphia, Pa.: C. Sherman & Co., No 19 St James Street. Office of Publication, 29 South Tenth Street, →OCLC, page 192

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   To cure you at once of sciatical pains, / That hamper your body in dolorous pains, / And keep you confin'd in your sheets without motion, / Take me two jorams of wine for a potion, / Reserving two glasses by way of a lotion, / Which warm you'll apply to the part that's affected, / Then tip the remainder, as I have directed, / To cure you.

   1812, J. F. N[eville], “A Rondeau by a French Joiner, Who Did Not Know His Letters!”, in Leisure-moments in the Camp and in the Guard-room, York: Printed by Thomas Wilson and Son, for the Author; and sold by J. Hatchard, bookseller to Her Majesty, opposite Albany, Piccadilly, London; and by J. and G. Todd, Stonegate, York, →OCLC, page 13

   At Christmas he entertained his tenants and tradesmen in this ball, when, with jorums after jorums, / "Let the horn go rounde, / Let the quart pot sounde, / Let each one do as he's done to;" Beaumont.

   1843, William Goodman, The Social History of Great Britain During the Reigns of the Stuarts, Beginning with the Seventeenth Century, Being the Period of Settling the United States. With Numerous Engravings, volume I, New York, N.Y.: William H. Colyer, No. 5 Hague-street, →OCLC, page 116

3. figurativelyA large quantity.

   Let the rain fall as heavily as it pleased, and the sticks be saturated through and through, as we ourselves were often enough! we never failed to boil our jorams of tea!

   1882, Routledge's Every Boy's Annual, London; New York, N.Y.: Routledge, Warne & Routledge, →OCLC, page 424

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   […] while Miss Skiffins brewed such a jorum of tea, that the pig in the back premises became strongly excited, and repeatedly expressed his desire to participate in the entertainment.

   1860 December – 1861 August, Charles Dickens, chapter XVIII, in Great Expectations […], volume II, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published October 1861, →OCLC, page 291

   "There they were," Julius wrote, "one supporting the poor little fellow with her arm—the other pouring jorams of the delicious drink of China down his lilly^([sic]) white throat.[…]"

   1955, Fred[erick] Coyne Hamil, Lake Erie Baron: The Story of Colonel Thomas Talbot, Toronto: Macmillan Company of Canada, →OCLC, page 254