jordan

• (obsolete): iurdan, iurdane, iurdone, yordan, iourden, iorden, jurdon, jordon, jourdon, jordain, jurden, jourdan, jorden

From Latin jurdanus, unattested outside of England and of uncertain etymology. Usually derived from a clipped form of Jordan bottle, supposedly a bottle of curative water brought back from the River Jordan by Crusaders and pilgrims to the Holy Land,[1] but this seems unsupported in its actual attestations. Its use for chamber pots may derive from the alchemical device having been used to hold urine.[2]

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈd͡ʒɔɹdn̩/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈd͡ʒɔːdn̩/

• Audio (US)

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• Rhymes: -ɔː(ɹ)dən
• Hyphenation: jor‧dan

jordan (plural jordans)

1. (obsolete) A vessel resembling a retort bulb or Florence flask with a truncated neck and flared mouth, used by medieval doctors and alchemists.
   • 15th c., Sloane MS. 73, p. 133:

     Make a good lute... and þerwiþ daub þi Iordan al aboute... and putte al þi mater in þe Iordan and hange it ouer þe fier by þe necke þ^t þe glas be almoost an hond brede fro þe coolis.

2. (obsolete) A chamber pot.
   • 1387, Chaucer, “v. 9379”, in The Pardoner's Tale‎:

     And eek thyne urynals and thy jurdones,
     Thyn ypocras, and eek thy galiones

   • 1440, Promptorium Parvulorum, p. 267:

     Iurdone, pyssepotte, iurdanus.

   • c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act II, scene i]:

     2.Car. Why, you will allow vs ne're a Iourden, and then we leake in your Chimney: and your Chamber-lye breeds Fleas like a Loach.

• (chamber pot): jordan-pot, see also Thesaurus:chamber pot

• jordan-pot

• Jardon