Jawn (Philadelphia Slang)

About

Jawn is a word that originated from Philadelphia regional slang. The word is used as a context-dependent term and substitutes for other nouns. The word is likely derived from the term joint and is used in a versatile manner, similar to the way one may use the word "thing."

Origin

According to a Merriam-Webster article and an opinion piece in Atlas Obscura, the word "jawn" is likely derived from the word "joint," which was popularly used in African-American vernacular in the 1960s and '70s. An example Merriam-Webster cites is the song "Rapper's Delight" by the Sugarhill Gang (lyrics seen below).

…And when the sucker MCs try to prove a point / We're Treacherous Trio, we're the serious joint.

The earliest known documented use of the word "jawn" took place in 1981 as well, when a UPenn linguist made field recordings of colloquial speech in West Philadelphia, documenting, amongst others, a young Black man using the word "jawn" to refer to "a bag, a place, women and even his own genitalia."^[1][2] The term "joint" likely evolved into "jawn" due to people's accents in the region.

The earliest known documentation of the word "jawn" on the internet was an Urban Dictionary^[3] entry made by a user named Jay Sticky (ooowee!!) on March 7th, 2003 (seen below).

Spread

The earliest known tweet using the word "jawn" and receiving notable engagement was posted to Twitter^[4] by the Roots drummer Questlove on December 3rd, 2012. The tweet read, "so "Hollaback Girl" was a diss jawn to Courtney Love http://bit.ly/WDcp8y (& 14 other non rap disses you might not have known)," and it gathered over 190 likes in over ten years (seen below).

On February 29th, 2016, Instagram^[6] page @dollarise posted an image of various Philadelphia slang terms, including "jawn," gathering 190 likes in nearly seven years (seen below, left). On 23rd March 2016, Facebook^[5] page Meanwhile In Philly posted a meme about the use of the word jawn in Philadelphia, gathering over 800 reactions in nearly seven years (seen below, right).

On November 8th, 2016, Twitter^[7] user @jiandeleon posted a joke using the word jawn and gathered over 2,000 likes in over five years (seen below, left). On January 15th, 2019, the word made an appearance in a starter pack meme about Philadelphia skaters posted by the Instagram^[8] page @tinyhat_skatelife, gathering over 4,000 likes in over three years (seen below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

Unavailable.

External References