Dear Johnn.

Brit.

/dɪə ˈdʒɒn/, U.S.

/ˌdɪr ˈdʒɑn/

Origin: Formed within English, by conversion. Etymon: Dear John.

Etymology: < Dear John, opening line of a letter to a (notional) male recipient < dear adj.¹ (compare dear adj.¹ 2c) + John , male forename, here used as a generic name for a man (see John n.).

slang (originally U.S.).

A letter, usually from a woman to a man, ending a romantic or sexual relationship; = Dear John letter. Also in extended use. Cf. Dear Jane n.Originally with reference to such letters received by servicemen during the Second World War (1939–45).

ΘΚΠ

society > communication > [noun] > by written communication > specific letter

Dear John1944

Dear Jane1951

society > communication > correspondence > letter > [noun] > other types of letter

billet-doux1673

poulet1691

treble letter1753

round robin1755

screed1834

tickler1846

application letter1850

test letter1869

letter of envoy1873

hastener1922

fan letter1932

aerogram1933

yum-yum1943

newsletter1961

overnights1975

1944 Lubbock (Texas) Avalanche-Jrnl. 26 Mar. 1/1 Louise Albritton..cautions girls about being too hasty in breaking engagements to young men in service by way of the ‘I take myself with pen in hand’ route. She says so many letters of that type have been received, the men have a word for them. ‘Dear Johns’ they are called.

1957 W. Camp Prospects of Love xvi. 103 There was a note from Fenny on the kitchen table. For the moment he enjoyed the irony of thinking it might be what the Americans called a ‘dearjohn’.

1971 Guardian 7 Jan. 11/8 The going is getting distinctively gritty for Pan Am, so much so that 1,876 of its staff are now walking round with a new year ‘Dear John’ from..the airline's president.

2003 E. Noble Reading Group 139 Joe shoved the letter into his coat pocket. He berated himself for opening it in the porter's lodge. He ought to have known it was a dear-John.

2018 T. Jones Amer. Marriage 204 I contemplated dropping a note..but that didn't feel right. A Dear John was bad, and a Dear Jane was worse.

Compounds

As a modifier, designating a letter, usually from a woman to a man, ending a romantic or sexual relationship, as in Dear John letter. Hence designating other means of ending a relationship, as in Dear John message, Dear John speech, etc.

ΚΠ

1944 Beckley (W. Va.) Post-Herald 28 Apr. 5/1 I continue to hear dreary stories of fickle women who write ‘Dear John’ letters to their sweethearts or husbands in foreign lands.

1964 J. Philips Laughter Trap (1965) i. ii. 13 Peter..had gone to war..in love with a girl named Elizabeth Schofield... He had received a ‘Dear John’ letter from Elizabeth, telling him she was married.

1994 Age (Melbourne) (Nexis) 13 Apr. (Late ed.) 17 They seem to have assumed a dead bloke with a ‘dear John’ message from his girl on the answer-phone and a detailed diary about sad feelings must have knocked himself off.

2000 M. Gayle Turning Thirty lxxxviii. 317 By this time tomorrow Ginny will be seeing the person formally known as her boyfriend to give him a well-prepared dear John speech.

2014 New Yorker 4 Aug. 38/3 ‘You ever heard of a Dear John letter? I got a Dear John call,’ Hood told me.

This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2022).

> as lemmas

Dear John

c. In the introductory address or subscription of a letter. Dear John, as n. (chiefly North American): see quot. 1945; also transferred and attributive.Dear Father, Brother, Friend, Dear John, and the like, are still affectionate and intimate, and made more so by prefixing My; but Dear Sir (or Dear Mr. A.) has become since the 17th cent. the ordinary polite form of addressing an equal.

ΘΚΠ

society > communication > correspondence > letter > [adjective] > specific introduction

well-beloved1409

dear1450

1450 Q. Margt. in Four C. Eng. Lett. 7 Right dere and welbeloved.

1503–4 Queen Margaret of Scotl. Let. in H. Ellis Orig. Lett. Eng. Hist. (1824) 1st Ser. I. 41 My most dere lorde and fader.

1516 Queen Margaret of Scotl. Let. 27 Apr. in H. Ellis Orig. Lett. Eng. Hist. (1824) 1st Ser. I. 129 Derest broder as hartly as I can I recomend me onto you.

?a1610 M. Littleton Let. in H. Ellis Orig. Lett. Eng. Hist. (1827) 2nd Ser. III. 218 Deare Aunt I ame as willinge [etc.].

1623 G. Villiers Let. in H. Ellis Orig. Lett. Eng. Hist. (1827) 2nd Ser. III. 146 Dere Dad, Gossope, and Steward.

1628 J. Ussher Let. to Sir R. Cotton in H. Ellis Orig. Lett. Eminent Literary Men (1843) (Camden) 138 Deare Sir, I know not who should beginne first [etc.].

1656 Bp. J. Taylor Let. in Evelyn's Mem. (1857) III. 72 Believe that I am, in great heartiness and dearness of affection, Dear Sir, your obliged and most affectionate friend and servant J. Taylor.

1665 S. Pepys Let. to Lady Carteret 4 Sept. Dear Madam, Your Ladyship will not (I hope) imagine [etc.].

1690 Harrison to Strype in H. Ellis Orig. Lett. Eng. Hist. ii. IV. 209 Dear Sir, after some few days stay at Liverpool for a wind [etc.].

1757 R. Symmer to A. Mitchell in H. Ellis Orig. Lett. Eng. Hist. ii. IV. 392 Dear Mitchell, I write a few lines [etc.].

1865 G. M. Hopkins Let. 28 Aug. (1935) 1 Dear Bridges,—I left Manchester more than a month ago.

1908 D. H. Lawrence Let. 4 May (1962) I. 7 Dear Miss Jennings: With hot, boyish, impatience I looked for a letter from you.

1945 Democrat & Chron. (Rochester, N.Y.) 17 Aug. 17/2 ‘Dear John,’ the letter began. ‘I have found someone else whom I think the world of. I think the only way out is for us to get a divorce,’ it said. They usually began like that, those letters that told of infidelity on the part of the wives of servicemen... The men called them ‘Dear Johns’.

1947 Amer. Speech 22 187 It was a ‘Dear John’. Quite a lot of the fellows had already had their ‘Dear Johns’.

1957 W. Camp Prospects of Love xvi. 103 There was a note from Fenny on the kitchen table. For the moment he enjoyed the irony of thinking it might be what the Americans called a ‘dearjohn’.

1970 Post Office Subscriber Trunk Dialling: Dialling Instructions (London) 1 Dear Customer, In 1966 we changed your old 3 letter and 4 figure numbering to all figures.

extracted from dearadj.¹n.²int.

n.1944

as lemmas

单词	dear john
释义	Dear Johnn. Brit. /dɪə ˈdʒɒn/, U.S. /ˌdɪr ˈdʒɑn/ Origin: Formed within English, by conversion. Etymon: Dear John. Etymology: < Dear John, opening line of a letter to a (notional) male recipient < dear adj.¹ (compare dear adj.¹ 2c) + John , male forename, here used as a generic name for a man (see John n.). slang (originally U.S.). A letter, usually from a woman to a man, ending a romantic or sexual relationship; = Dear John letter. Also in extended use. Cf. Dear Jane n.Originally with reference to such letters received by servicemen during the Second World War (1939–45). ΘΚΠ society > communication > [noun] > by written communication > specific letter Dear John1944 Dear Jane1951 society > communication > correspondence > letter > [noun] > other types of letter billet-doux1673 poulet1691 treble letter1753 round robin1755 screed1834 tickler1846 application letter1850 test letter1869 letter of envoy1873 hastener1922 fan letter1932 aerogram1933 yum-yum1943 newsletter1961 overnights1975 1944 Lubbock (Texas) Avalanche-Jrnl. 26 Mar. 1/1 Louise Albritton..cautions girls about being too hasty in breaking engagements to young men in service by way of the ‘I take myself with pen in hand’ route. She says so many letters of that type have been received, the men have a word for them. ‘Dear Johns’ they are called. 1957 W. Camp Prospects of Love xvi. 103 There was a note from Fenny on the kitchen table. For the moment he enjoyed the irony of thinking it might be what the Americans called a ‘dearjohn’. 1971 Guardian 7 Jan. 11/8 The going is getting distinctively gritty for Pan Am, so much so that 1,876 of its staff are now walking round with a new year ‘Dear John’ from..the airline's president. 2003 E. Noble Reading Group 139 Joe shoved the letter into his coat pocket. He berated himself for opening it in the porter's lodge. He ought to have known it was a dear-John. 2018 T. Jones Amer. Marriage 204 I contemplated dropping a note..but that didn't feel right. A Dear John was bad, and a Dear Jane was worse. Compounds As a modifier, designating a letter, usually from a woman to a man, ending a romantic or sexual relationship, as in Dear John letter. Hence designating other means of ending a relationship, as in Dear John message, Dear John speech, etc. ΚΠ 1944 Beckley (W. Va.) Post-Herald 28 Apr. 5/1 I continue to hear dreary stories of fickle women who write ‘Dear John’ letters to their sweethearts or husbands in foreign lands. 1964 J. Philips Laughter Trap (1965) i. ii. 13 Peter..had gone to war..in love with a girl named Elizabeth Schofield... He had received a ‘Dear John’ letter from Elizabeth, telling him she was married. 1994 Age (Melbourne) (Nexis) 13 Apr. (Late ed.) 17 They seem to have assumed a dead bloke with a ‘dear John’ message from his girl on the answer-phone and a detailed diary about sad feelings must have knocked himself off. 2000 M. Gayle Turning Thirty lxxxviii. 317 By this time tomorrow Ginny will be seeing the person formally known as her boyfriend to give him a well-prepared dear John speech. 2014 New Yorker 4 Aug. 38/3 ‘You ever heard of a Dear John letter? I got a Dear John call,’ Hood told me. This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2022). > as lemmas Dear John c. In the introductory address or subscription of a letter. Dear John, as n. (chiefly North American): see quot. 1945; also transferred and attributive.Dear Father, Brother, Friend, Dear John, and the like, are still affectionate and intimate, and made more so by prefixing My; but Dear Sir (or Dear Mr. A.) has become since the 17th cent. the ordinary polite form of addressing an equal. ΘΚΠ society > communication > correspondence > letter > [adjective] > specific introduction well-beloved1409 dear1450 1450 Q. Margt. in Four C. Eng. Lett. 7 Right dere and welbeloved. 1503–4 Queen Margaret of Scotl. Let. in H. Ellis Orig. Lett. Eng. Hist. (1824) 1st Ser. I. 41 My most dere lorde and fader. 1516 Queen Margaret of Scotl. Let. 27 Apr. in H. Ellis Orig. Lett. Eng. Hist. (1824) 1st Ser. I. 129 Derest broder as hartly as I can I recomend me onto you. ?a1610 M. Littleton Let. in H. Ellis Orig. Lett. Eng. Hist. (1827) 2nd Ser. III. 218 Deare Aunt I ame as willinge [etc.]. 1623 G. Villiers Let. in H. Ellis Orig. Lett. Eng. Hist. (1827) 2nd Ser. III. 146 Dere Dad, Gossope, and Steward. 1628 J. Ussher Let. to Sir R. Cotton in H. Ellis Orig. Lett. Eminent Literary Men (1843) (Camden) 138 Deare Sir, I know not who should beginne first [etc.]. 1656 Bp. J. Taylor Let. in Evelyn's Mem. (1857) III. 72 Believe that I am, in great heartiness and dearness of affection, Dear Sir, your obliged and most affectionate friend and servant J. Taylor. 1665 S. Pepys Let. to Lady Carteret 4 Sept. Dear Madam, Your Ladyship will not (I hope) imagine [etc.]. 1690 Harrison to Strype in H. Ellis Orig. Lett. Eng. Hist. ii. IV. 209 Dear Sir, after some few days stay at Liverpool for a wind [etc.]. 1757 R. Symmer to A. Mitchell in H. Ellis Orig. Lett. Eng. Hist. ii. IV. 392 Dear Mitchell, I write a few lines [etc.]. 1865 G. M. Hopkins Let. 28 Aug. (1935) 1 Dear Bridges,—I left Manchester more than a month ago. 1908 D. H. Lawrence Let. 4 May (1962) I. 7 Dear Miss Jennings: With hot, boyish, impatience I looked for a letter from you. 1945 Democrat & Chron. (Rochester, N.Y.) 17 Aug. 17/2 ‘Dear John,’ the letter began. ‘I have found someone else whom I think the world of. I think the only way out is for us to get a divorce,’ it said. They usually began like that, those letters that told of infidelity on the part of the wives of servicemen... The men called them ‘Dear Johns’. 1947 Amer. Speech 22 187 It was a ‘Dear John’. Quite a lot of the fellows had already had their ‘Dear Johns’. 1957 W. Camp Prospects of Love xvi. 103 There was a note from Fenny on the kitchen table. For the moment he enjoyed the irony of thinking it might be what the Americans called a ‘dearjohn’. 1964 J. Philips Laughter Trap (1965) i. ii. 13 Peter..had gone to war..in love with a girl named Elizabeth Schofield... He had received a ‘Dear John’ letter from Elizabeth, telling him she was married. 1970 Post Office Subscriber Trunk Dialling: Dialling Instructions (London) 1 Dear Customer, In 1966 we changed your old 3 letter and 4 figure numbering to all figures. 1971 Guardian 7 Jan. 11/8 The going is getting distinctively gritty for Pan Am, so much so that 1,876 of its staff are now walking round with a new year ‘Dear John’ from..the airline's president. extracted from dearadj.¹n.²int. < n.1944 as lemmas
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