The enduring mystery of ‘Jawn,’ Philadelphia’s all-purpose noun (2016)
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HN comment orderI've been using variations of "jawn" or "jawns" as my username for 20+ years. It's a word that has endured surprisingly well, as slang goes. And it's a conspicuously egalitarian term. You'll find it used in both blue-collar and white-collar settings, and across racial lines. There's very little tribal attachment. Nobody cares if you appropriate it. The general sentiment is the more jawn users, the better. But unfortunately, I'm afraid it may have jumped the shark when the "Jawn Morgan"…
Quite a few people in the comments are asking why you couldn't just use the word "thing", I'll try my best to explain. I grew up in northeastern PA, but my dad lived on the outskirts of Philly, and I went to school not far from the city, with a large population of Philly natives, so I got a decent amount of exposure to jawn usage from different walks of life. Jawn has a few different uses, but I feel…
Discussed at the time: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11367406
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- Breakout years
- 2
- Total points
- 171
- Total comments
- 242
100+ points or 50+ comments
reference only — not used in Hall rules or ranking
reference only — not used in Hall rules or ranking
Every submission
| Date | Title as submitted | By | Points | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018-10-20 | The Enduring Mystery of ‘Jawn,’ Philadelphia’s All-Purpose Noun (2016) | zrail | 3 | 1 |
| 2019-07-31 | The Enduring Mystery of ‘Jawn,’ Philadelphia’s All-Purpose Noun (2016)First breakout | tylerbainbridge | 82 | 108 |
| 2022-09-16 | The enduring mystery of ‘Jawn,’ Philadelphia’s all-purpose noun (2016)Best thread · Latest 20+ point return | tomcam | 86 | 133 |