![\"Jade](\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/www.badreputation.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/Picture-2.png\")
<\/a>Jade Burial Mask of King Pakal (Mayan), National Museum of Anthropology and History, Mexico City, via flickr user chaostrophy.<\/p><\/div>\n
The first refers to the stone, itself a hybrid of ‘two distinct
minerals’, which ‘for their hardness have been used for
implements and ornaments’. These two, Nephrite and Jadeite,
originate in different languages (lithos nephritikos<\/em> and
l’ejade<\/em> respectively), but connect at the identical
meaning ‘kidney \/ colic stones’, in allusion to
jade<\/em>‘s perceived medicinal properties.\u00a0Famously
fascinating to Chinese artists in particular, from as far back as
the Shang dynasty,
jade <\/em>was also valued for its hardness and concomitant
indestructibility (hence its use in burials, as in the Mayan
example on the left) \u2013 much more than a simple
gemstone.<\/p>\n
Jade<\/em>‘s lexical half-brother form is of
unknown origin, though possibly connected to
‘yaud’ via the Icelandic ‘jalda’
(= ‘mare’). Its first citation appears around
1386, and here
jade <\/em>is glossed\u00a0as
‘a\u00a0contemptuous name for a horse’, or
‘a horse as opposed to a riding
horse’.\u00a0Its pejorative status may explain its
feminine etymology: mares were generally used in Days Of
Yore for more everyday work than that chosen for
stallions and geldings, losing their rights to many of
the Sexy Jobs (racing, fighting, hunting, fishin’,
shootin’) because of their perceived Attitude
Problems, especially during estrous.<\/p>\n
I am, alas, no equine expert so I cannot claim to know
how much of this derives from suspicious
anthropomorphism and how much from observable truth.
It sounds as dubious as similar assertions that
‘all’ women are mardy, but if some
horse-fancier out there can prove otherwise, well, I
bow to your superior wisdom, and toddle back
tail-drawn to the dictionary, where it is safe and
warm.<\/p>\n
More vaguely,
jade<\/em> can signify a rather delicious list of
equine insults: ‘a roadster, a hack, a sorry
inconditioned wearied or worn out horse; a
vicious, worthless, ill tempered horse’, but
(and the dictionary is very specific on this
point), it is only ‘rarely’ applied to
a donkey.\u00a0In extended meaning, it can be
‘generally’ applied to a horse in a
kind of affectionate usage ‘without
depreciatory sense’, where its main
appearance is in Renaissance comedy. Thus, in
Jonson’s beautiful
Alchemist <\/em>(c.1610), the servant Face
resents being made to ‘stalk like a
mill-jade’.<\/p>\n
Alas, since the decline of horses as a major
method of transportation, the utility of a
catch-all insult for
useless\u00a0specimens\u00a0has come into
question, and nowadays the word is rare. We
are left with the slightly more familiar
sense, arriving in the 1550s, as ‘a term of reprobation applied to a
woman<\/em>‘. In this instance, it is
unclear exactly what it means: its citations
largely sound like tautologies, as in
‘an expensive jade of a wife’
(from the
Spectator <\/em>in 1722), and I suppose
its significance is in extending the
‘useless’ tag of the original
equine. Indeed, given the
dictionary’s conservative tendencies
over citations (and the early date for
this last term) we can assume that these
first and second uses of
jade <\/em>are\u00a0feeding off each
other, and probably almost
synonymous.<\/p>\n
However, like its original horsey
meaning,
jade <\/em>as a woman\u00a0can also
be jocular, apparently in alignment
with\u00a0‘hussy <\/em>or
minx<\/em>‘; and this
latter may, incidentally, derive
its playfulness in extension
from another animal origin,
mynx <\/em>(‘a
puppy’) and \/ or the
Middle Dutch
minnekijn<\/em>, meaning
‘darling’ or
‘sweetheart’. We
might also think of Minnie<\/a>,
herself a sort of feminist
icon, if you will.<\/p>\n
But one of the
surprising things about
this surprising word is
its gender neutrality:
thus its third meaning,
in application to a man,
‘usually in some
figure drawing from
sense 1’, that is,
(here we are again) back
to horse
insults.\u00a0This is
the usage it has in
The Taming of The
Shrew<\/em>, an early
Shakespeare release
that titularly plays
with subordinating
occasionally
recalcitrant beasts
and frequently riles
audiences with its
ostensibly despicable
gender-politics:<\/p>\n
Petruchio:
…Come, sit
on me,
William
Shakespeare,
The Taming Of
The
Shrew<\/strong>
(c.1590-4)
II.i.198-201.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
The
‘Shrew’,
Katherina,
here dubs her
‘Tamer’
a\u00a0jade
<\/em>in
this third
sense,
playing with
the punning
meanings of
‘bear’
that have
immediately
preceded.
Asses are
made to
bear; so are
women. Oh
ho. Fun with
zeugmas.<\/p>\n
But
Katherina
gives as
good as
she gets,
Minnie-style,
using
j<\/em>ade
<\/em>to\u00a0succinctly\u00a0imply
that
Petruchio
is the
sexual
equivalent
of
‘a
sorry,
ill-conditioned
or
worn
out
horse’
(which
in
asexual
extension
gives
us
jaded
<\/em>as
‘worn
out,
cynical’
\u2013
probably
the
only
form
of
this
word
still
in
common
use).\u00a0That
the
horse
in
question
may
have
began
lexical
life
as a
‘mare’
seems
contextually
unimportant,
since
nowhere
in
the
history
of
sexual
politics
is a
woman
expected
to
‘keep
up’
or
indeed
do
much
more
than
‘fall
back’.\u00a0Nonetheless,\u00a0it
is
interesting
that
the
male
should
be
attacked
here
on
explicitly
sexual
territory,
which
also
draws
attention
to
jade<\/em>‘s
arguable\u00a0antonyms,\u00a0‘stallion’,
and
‘stud’.<\/p>\n
So
where
does
jade
<\/em>leave
us
now?
Sometime
around
the
1970s,
it
was
the
first
sense
of
the
word
that
spawned
the
(unisex)
name
meaning
‘jewel’
or
‘precious
stone’,
as
indeed
jade
<\/em>the
gem
now
endures
in
everyday
language.
But
the
flip-side
of
this
now
almost
obsolete
word
is
its\u00a0punning
sexual
suggestiveness,
where
it
is
interesting
to
note
that
this
is
one
ostensibly
female
word
that
turns
back
to
bite
its
male
accusers.
A
jade’s
trick
indeed.<\/p>\n NEXT
WEEK:
K
is
for
Knickerbocker<\/strong><\/p>\n
A Horse of a Different Colour<\/h3>\n
Bring On The Dancing Horses.<\/h3>\n
Oh, Man.<\/h3>\n
\nKatherina:
Asses are made to
bear, and so are
you.
\nPetruchio:
Women are made to
bear, and so are
you.
\nKatherina: No
such jade as you,
if me you
mean.<\/p>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n