[Familiar diminutive of the name John: see -IE, -Y.]
1. Applied humorously or contemptuously to various classes of men: A fellow, chap; spec. a nickname given to Englishmen in the Mediterranean, to the Confederate soldiers in the American civil war, etc.; in recent use chiefly denoting a fashionable young man of idle habits.
1673. Hickeringill, Gregory F. Greyb., 46. As if it was such a marvel, Jonye should be chous’d, when he comes to Commence Gentleman and Gallant.
1724–7. ? Ramsay, Bonny Tweedside. Where she that is bonny May catch her a johnny, And never lead apes below.
1803. Naval Chron., IX. 417. The Johnnys rubbed their hands.
1824. Byron, Lett. to Murray, 25 Feb. The English Johnnies, who had never been out of a cockney workshop before!
1842. E. E. Napier, Excurs. Shores Medit., I. 226. Addressing us as ‘Johnny,’ [they] were very officious in offering their services. ‘Johnny’ is, in this part of the country, the national appellation of an Englishman by the lower orders of Spaniards.
1889. Daily News, 15 July, 3/1. An idle and vacuous young aristocrat, of the class popularly known as ‘Johnnies.’
1894. H. Gardener, Unoff. Patriot, 310. It took … the entire regiment hitched to one of the cannon to pull it along the road the Johnnies retreated over.
2. Applied to various animals. a. A sportsman’s name for a tiger. b. A sailor’s name for a kind of penguin. c. Local American name of two fishes, Oligocottus maculosus, abundant on the western coast of the United States, and Etheostoma nigrum, a kind of darter. (Cent. Dict.)
1815. Sporting Mag., XLV. 9. We entered the jungle, and soon caught sight of three Johnnies.
1898. Daily News, 19 April, 6/2. Reading the following paragraph on penguins—or Johnnies as they are familiarly called.
3. Johnny Raw: nickname for an inexperienced youngster; a raw recruit; a new hand; a novice.
1813. Col. Hawker, Diary (1893), I. 68. A grand attack was made on the Johnny raws of Blandford.
1827. Hone, Every-day Bk., II. 1395. There were some Johnny Raws on board.
1886. Stevenson, Kidnapped (1888), 39. You took me for a country Johnnie Raw, with no more mother-wit or courage than a porridge-stick.
