jess

See also: Jess

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: jĕs, IPA^(key): /dʒɛs/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛs

Etymology 1

From Middle English ges, from Middle French gies, from the plural of jet (“throw”), from Vulgar Latin *iectus, jectus < iactus (“a throwing”), or from jeter (“to throw”), itself from Latin iactare.

Noun

jess (plural jesses)

1. (falconry) A short strap fastened around the leg of a bird used in falconry, to which a leash may be fastened.
   • 1486, Juliana Berners, The booke of hauking, huntyng and fysshyng, London, 1566,^[1]

     Haukes haue about theyr legges gesses made of lether moste comonly, some of silke which should no lenger but that the knottes of them should appere in ye myddes of the left hande betwene the longe fynger and the leche fynger bicause the lewnes should be fastened to them with a payre of tyrettes, whiche tyrettes should rest vpon the lewnes and not vpon gesses, for hangyng and fastyng vpon trees when she fleyth […]

   • 1686, Richard Blome, The Gentlemans Recreation, Part 2, Chapter 24 “Certain Terms of Art used in Falconry, with an Explanation thereof, Alphabetically set down,” p. 62,^[2]

     Jesses are the short straps of Leather that are fastned to her Legs, and so to the Lease by the Varvils.

   • 1773, James Campbell, A Treatise on modern faulconry:

     If your hawk is bad-weathered, that is, will not fit on your fist when the wind blows, but hales, and beats, and hangs by the jeſſes, ſhe has an ill habit of the worſt kind.

Verb

jess (third-person singular simple present jesses, present participle jessing, simple past and past participle jessed)

1. (falconry) To fasten a strap around the leg of a hawk.

Etymology 2

See jet (etymology 2).

Noun

jess (plural jesses)

1. Alternative form of jet (the mineral).
2. Alternative form of jet (the color).

Etymology 3

See just.

Adverb

jess (not comparable)

1. Pronunciation spelling of just.

References

• Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary, Springfield, Massachusetts, G.&C. Merriam Co., 1967

Anagrams

• JSEs, JSSE

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Finnish

Interjection

Template:fi-int!

1. Alternative form of jes

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Icelandic

Etymology

From English yes.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /jɛsː/
• Rhymes: -ɛsː

Interjection

jess

1. (informal) yes (exclamation of satisfaction, joy, etc.)