Joan

proper noun

1. 1

   A female given name from French, a feminine form of John.

   Maybe my mother didn't name me after Joan Crawford after all, I thought; she just told me that to cover up. She named me after Joan of Arc, didn't she know what happened to women like that?

   In the Besson and Duguay films, the two Joans (Milla Jovovich and the 16-year-old Leelee Sobieski, respectively) brim with purpose, but one is ever mindful that here we have two fine-looking young women.

   Joan Goldstein, the Jewish chair of the group’s chapter in North Jersey, has attended Ramadan celebrations throughout the years — although she said she hasn’t been able to do the full fast yet and still drinks water.

2. 2

   A male given name from Catalan, a form of John.

noun

1. 1

   archaicA placeholder or conventional name for any woman, particularly a younger lower-class woman.

   Ber. O and I forsoth in loue, I that haue been loues whip?... Well, I will loue, write, sigh, pray, shue, grone, Some men must loue my Ladie, and some Ione.

   Joan’s as good as this French lady.

   ‘Ioan in the darke is as good as my lady:’ Nay, perhapps better, such ladies there may bee.

   Bast. A foot of Honor better then I was, But many a many foot of Land the worse. Well, now can I make any Ioane a Lady, Good den Sir Richard, Godamercy fellow, And if his name be George, Ile call him Peter; For new made honor doth forget mens names...

2. 2

   archaicA kind of close-fitting cap for women popular in the mid-18th century.

   A grocer's wife attractd our eyes by a new-fashioned cap called a Joan.

Forms

plural

Joans