Hi this is Tutor Nick P and this is Word Origins 250. The word origin ... we
actually have three word origins today. One is the word origin for John Doe. John
you know, used as a name for the toilet and john the man who goes with prostitutes. All right.
Let's continue. If somebody wants a screenshot, do right now. Let's get right into it. All of these
origins derived from the fact that John used to be one of the most common names. All right. The name
john for toilet is believed to derive from the terms the jakes and the jacks which was a medieval
term for a smelly bathroom inside or outside a home. So if you were richer maybe it was inside
if you were not so rich it was probably outside. Even though if it's if it's very
smelly maybe you're better off with it outside. Anyway, Jake and Jack were very common names.
Jake was a diminutive name for John. So it was kind of related to the word john as well.
Remember diminutive is like today John maybe a diminutive might be like Johnny for example.
In the 1400's, these names were used for a number of objects. Even today in Ireland the toilet is
referred to as the jacks. To it's still that way in Ireland today. Let's continue. The term for a
customer of a prostitute came about because a customer would usually not give his real name
and use John since it was so common. So I guess if the guy went with a prostitute. The prostitute
asked what's your name ? He'd just say John. You know because he doesn't want to give his real
name . So another name for this type of customer is called a curb crawler. All right. I guess they
did that because the curb like c-u-r-b curb. Even though they spell it differently here. I guess if
a man was looking for a prostitute, especially a street prostitute, he might drive slowly along the
curb and talk to the prostitute to I guess make a business arrangement or something like that.
The police commonly referred to this type of customer as a john. Of course,. It's illegal
to be a john. It's also a crime. Some you know, so sometimes they they try to arrest
these people too.. Let's go on. Nowadays, most commonly if a dead body is found without ID,
the name John Doe is used for a man and Jane Doe is used for a woman. John Doe is used
to refer or is used to refer to a man whose real name is unknown or cannot be revealed for legal
reasons. All right. So you know like according to law. In former times, if a landowner had squatters
and was trying to get his land back and get his rightful title for some reason he would apply with
a fake name and he used to apply with the name John Doe. Now remember a squatter that just means
somebody who didn't really own the land. They just went on and took it over. Just like today,
if you had a house or a building and you left it abandoned for a
while nobody was there and somebody just moved into it that would be a squatter. So
you can imagine in former times this was probably even a bigger problem than it is today.
Now I don't also know why in former times they had to use a fake name,
but there was probably something with the law that there was probably a good reason for it.
It was referred to as an ejection action . In modern times, it would refer... we would refer
to it as an eviction. Yeah. So if somebody was you know, at your ... on your property or in your
house or even even an old tenant that stopped paying. You might want to evict them. Get them.
Force them out legally. So John Doe was used for the plaintiff and Richard Roe for the defendant.
It is a little odd because both the names doe and roe had something to do with deer.
We know doe because we know from the old you know. a Sound of Music" song you know.
You know, a doe a deer a female deer. So doe is the name for a female deer. Roe is another
type of species of of deer. So they chose those names for some reason. All right. Anyway, we just
got three examples to show how we would use it. Here's the first one. I need to go to the john.
Is there a toilet nearby ? Now when we do use john for bathroom, it is kind , it's very
informal. It's a slang. I think men use it more than women use it. I don't hear women often say
they want to go to the john. You think of like a tough guy. A truck driver would be typical to use
something like this. All right. Number two. He was caught in a sting operation and arrested for being
a john. So just like he said. That's even though that he is the customer. That's illegal for a guy
to be a customer. You know, to pay somebody for sex basically. So all right. Good and number three
here. They have not found out the true identity of that john doe yet. So they found a dead body
of a guy and he had no ID on him. So they are still trying to figure out his real identity. Who
he really is and until they do that they refer to him as a John Doe. Okay. Anyway, I hope you
got it. I hope it was clear. I hope was very informative. Thank you for your time. Bye-bye.