Jenny
proper nounnouncommon in dialogue
- //ˈd͡ʒɛni//
A female given name.
proper noun
- 1
A female given name.
Jenny kissed me when we met, Jumping from the chair she sat in; Time, you thief, who love to get Sweets into your list, put that in! Say I'm weary, say I'm sad, Say that health and wealth have missed me, Say I'm growing old, but add, Jenny kissed me.
Jennifer Jo McIntire (with two Jennys now, everyone had followed Matthew’s lead and taken to calling her by her full name) […]
- 2
A surname.
Mrs Wreford Brown died in 1946 and the house passed to Colonel and Mrs Jenny. […] From the Jennys it fell into the hands of developers and from them it passed to Colonel and Mrs Bryant and thence to us.
Etymology
From Jen + -y, historically as a hypochoristic form of Janet, Jane, etc. but now more often used as a diminutive of Jennifer. Rarely also a nickname of Genevieve (compare Genny, pronounced the same), Eugenia or Virginia (compare Ginny). Doublet of Ivanka, Jan, Janelle, Janet, Janey, Janine, Jeanette, Jeanie, Jeannette, Jeannine, Jen, Jenna, Jessie, Jo, Jody, Juanita, Shanae, Sinead, and Vanna in derivations from Jane etc. In senses related to inanimate objects, partially derived from the generic senses of Jane and partially an informal pronunciation of engine.
noun
- 1
informalA Wren (a member of the WRNS).
- 2
slangA Curtiss JN-4 airplane.
- 3
Variant of jennyAlternative letter-case form of jenny.
Forms
- plural
- Jennys, Jennies