Forms: 6–7 iarre, 7–8 jarr, 7– jar. [a. F. jarre (16th c. in Godef., Compl.) = Pr. jarro, Sp., Pg. jarra, jarro, It. giara (formerly also giarra, zara), a. Arab. jarrah, earthen water-vessel. (The Eng. may be in part directly from Sp.)]
1. A vessel of earthenware, stoneware, or glass, without spout or handle (or having two handles), usually more or less cylindrical in form. Orig. used only in its eastern sense of a large earthen vessel for holding water, oil, wine, etc. (See quots.)
Leyden jar, an electrical condenser consisting of a cylindrical glass jar lined inside and outside nearly to the top with tin foil, the inner coating being connected at the top with a brass rod which ends in a knob.
1592. J. Twitt, in Hakluyt, Voy. (1600), III. 568. Wee descryed a frigat … wherein were 22. iarres of copper-money.
1613. Purchas, Pilgrimage (1614), 469. At the dore there is a great iarre of water, with a … Ladle in it, and there they wash their feete.
1628. Digby, Voy. Medit., 48. I found that … hanging some lead in the iarres, it continued perfect good.
1660. Boyle, New Exp. Phys.-Mech., xxv. 199. The Glass did … fall down to the bottom of the Jar.
1718. Lady M. W. Montagu, Lett. to Abbé Conti, 19 May. The galleries … are adorned with jars of flowers.
1750. Franklin, Lett., etc. 25 Dec., Wks. 1840, V. 255. The shock from two large glass jars, containing as much electrical fire as forty common phials.
1832. Hand-bk. Nat. Philos., II. Electr., viii. 34 (U.K.S.). This instrument having been made known principally through the experiments of Kleist, Cuneus, and Muschenbroeck, at Leyden, the name of the Leyden phial, or jar, was generally applied to it.
1846. Grote, Greece, II. xxiii. (1862), II. 563. The jars and pottery of Korkyra enjoyed great reputation.
2. Such a vessel and its contents; hence, as much as a jar will hold, a jarful. Formerly a measure of capacity varying according to the commodity.
1598. Florio, Giara, Giarra,… also a certaine measure of liquid things, which we call a iarre.
1656. Blount, Glossogr., Jar (Span. Jarro …), with us it is most usually taken for a vessel of twenty Gallons of Oyl.
1706. Phillips, Jarr of Oil, an Earthen Vessel containing from 18 to 26 Gallons; A Jarr of green Ginger is about a Hundred Pounds Weight.
1732. Pope, Ep. Bathurst, 56. Sir, Spain has sent a thousand jars of oil.
1848. L. Hunt (title), A Jar of Honey from Mount Hybla.
3. attrib. and Comb., as jar radiation, jar-like adj.; † jar-glass, a low glass vessel shaped like a gallipot.
1602. Plat, Delightes for Ladies (1608), § 52. Put it vp in gally pots, or iarre glasses.
1652. Culpepper, Eng. Physic., 256. Take a flat glass, we call them jarr glasses, strew in a lair of fine sugar.
1694. Salmon, Bate’s Dispens. (1713), 274/2. Keep it in a Jarglass or Gally-pot, tyed close over with a wet Bladder, for Vse.
1880. A. Wilson, in Gentl. Mag., CCXLVI. 42. These animals are given to eject water from their jar-like bodies.
1892. Pall Mall Gaz., 5 May, 6/2. The discharges of a Leyden jar were sent through the primary wire of an oil induction coil. The wave-length of the jar radiation was three hundred metres.
