Also Sc. 8 jad, 9 jaud. [Of unknown origin; often assumed to be a doublet of YAUD (Icel. jalda mare), but app. without reason.]
1. A contemptuous name for a horse; a horse of inferior breed, e.g., a cart- or draught-horse as opposed to a riding horse; a roadster, a hack; a sorry, ill-conditioned, wearied or worn-out horse; a vicious, worthless, ill-tempered horse; rarely applied to a donkey.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Nun’s Pr. Prol., 46. Be blithe though thou ryde vp-on a Iade, What thogh thyn hors be bothe foule and lene.
1530. Palsgr., 233/2. Iade a dull horse, galier.
1576. Gascoigne, Steele Gl. (Arb.), 79. When horsecorsers beguile no friends with Iades.
1589. Pappe w. Hatchet (1844), 35. If like a restie Iade thou wilt take the bitt in thy mouth, and then runne ouer hedge and ditch, thou shalt be broken.
1600. J. Pory, trans. Leo’s Africa, II. 309. You are much deceived … that thinke mine asse to be dead: for the hungrie iade knowing his masters necessity hath wrought this sleight.
1605. Verstegan, Dec. Intell., vii. (1628), 205. Not fit for Gentlemens horses, but for Carters iades.
1666. Charles II., in Julia Cartwright, Henrietta of Orleans (1894), 237. I shall have much ado to mounte my selfe with so much as jades for this summer’s hunting.
a. 1680. Butler, Rem. (1759), II. 495. The swiftest Race-Horse will not perform a long Journey so well as a sturdy dull Jade.
1709. Pope, Ess. Crit., 604. False steps but help them to renew the race, As, after stumbling, Jades will mend their pace.
1816. Scott, Antiq., i. The expected vehicle, pressing forward with all the despatch to which the broken-winded jades that drew it could possibly be urged.
1819. L. Hunt, Indicator, No. 11 (1822), I. 82. He palmed upon the owners a sorry jade of an ass.
b. Sometimes used without depreciatory sense, playfully, or in generalized sense: = HORSE.
1553. Bale, Vocacyon, in Harl. Misc. (Malh.), I. 362. The Kearnes, the Galloglasses, and the other brechelesse souldiers, with horses and their horse gromes, sum time iij waitinge vpon one jade.
1584. R. Scot, Discov. Witchcr., XVI. viii. (1886), 408. You shall not heare a butcher or a horsse-courser cheapen a bullocke or a jade.
1602. Marston, Antonio’s Rev., III. i. Wks. 1856, I. 104. The black jades of swart night trot foggy rings Bout heavens browe.
1653. H. More, Antid. Ath., III. ix. (1712), 118. Cantius his Horse … (which was a lusty-bodied Jade).
a. 1825. Forby, Voc. E. Anglia, Jade, a horse. We do not always use it in a contemptuous sense, as it is in general use…. A clown will somtimes call a fine hunter ‘a brave jade.’ Cart horses are very commonly called so, though they be by no means despicable. Nay, even fine teams of Suffolk punches.
c. In figurative applications.
a. 1577. Gascoigne, Weedes, ii. Compl. Green Knt. And bad Repentance holds the reines, to rule the brainsicke iade.
1583. Golding, Calvin on Deut. iii. 17. They play the ouerpampered Iades which fall to kicking against their maisters.
1599. Shaks., Much Ado, I. i. 145. You alwaies end with a Iades tricke.
1657. H. Crowch, Welsh Trav., 8. Fortune often plaies the Jade.
1768. Goldsm., Good-n. Man, I. i. That same Philosophy is a good horse in the stable, but an errant jade on a journey.
2. A term of reprobation applied to a woman. Also used playfully, like hussy or minx.
1560. Nice Wanton, in Hazl., Dodsley, II. 179. Such a jade she is, and so curst a quean, She would out-scold the devil’s dame I ween.
1584. R. W., Three Ladies Lond., I. Ibid. VI. 256–7. When I could not thrive by all other trades, I became a squire to wait upon jades.
1590. Spenser, F. Q., II. xi. 31. The Squyre … Snatcht first the one, and then the other Iade [the hags Impotence and Impatience].
1668. Pepys, Diary, 14 Jan. [Mrs] Pierce says she [Miss Davis] is a most homely jade as ever she saw.
1711. Addison, Spect., No. 130, ¶ 1. You see now and then some handsome young Jades among them [the Gipsies]. Ibid. (1712), No. 343, ¶ 7. Being marry’d to an expensive Jade of a Wife.
1780. S. Crisp, Lett., in Mad. D’Arblay’s Diary, 27 April. Sarah Marlborough,… though much of the jade, had undoubtedly very strong parts.
1786. Burns, Ordination, iv. How … Zipporah, the scauldin jad, Was like a bluidy tiger. Ibid. (1790), Tam o’ Shanter, 182. A souple jade she was, and strang.
1812. Crabbe, Tales, xiii. 246. A lying, prying, jilting, thievish jade.
1824. Scott, Redgauntlet, Let. x. Are ye at it again wi’ the siller, ye jaud?
1849. Saxe, Poems, Times, 73. A laughing jade, of not ungentle mold.
1883. Times, 1 Jan., 4/2. The ‘Obsequies of Superstition,’ performed by a procession of scamps and jades, who marched through Paris wearing in mockery vestments robbed from the churches, and carrying chalices which were used afterwards in drunken orgies.
b. Applied to Fortune, Nature, etc., personified.
1594. Carew, Huarte’s Exam. Wits, xiii. (1596), 218. These crie out vpon fortune, and call her blind buzzard, and inde.
1791. Wolcott (P. Pindar), Loyal Odes, VI. ii. But error, what a meretricious jade.
1807. W. Irving, Salmag. (1824), 123. Confound the Jade, what a pity nature had not been of the masculine instead of the feminine gender.
1812. H. & J. Smith, Horace in Lond., 119. When Fortune, fickle jade’s unkind.
1871. C. Gibbon, Lack of Gold, xiii. Poverty is a stern jade to fight.
c. Rarely applied to a man: usually in some figure drawn from sense 1.
1596. Shaks., Tam. Shr., I. ii. 249. Gre. What, this Gentleman will out-talke vs all. Luc. Sir giue him head, I know hee’l proue a Iade.
1608. Sylvester, Du Bartas, II. iv. IV. Decay, 893. A jolly Prater, but a Iade to doe.
1615. S. Ward, Coal from Altar, 54. Hee is but a dull Iade, that will not follow.
3. attrib. and Comb.
1599. Marston, Sco. Villanie, II. Proem. 193. Though roguie thoughts do force some iade-like moile.
1752. Fielding, Amelia, I. v. Had not Fortune played one of her jade tricks.
Hence Jadeship, the personality of a jade; Jadery, behavior characteristic of a jade.
1612. Two Noble K., V. iv. [vi.] The hot horse … seekes all foule meanes Of boystrous and rough Iadrie to dis-seate His Lord.
1621. J. Taylor (Water P.), Taylors Motto, Wks. (1630), II. 44/1. Marry gep With a horse night-cap doth your Iadeship skip? Although you kicke … and spurn, Yet all your Colts-tricks will not serue your turn.
