Jade, subs. (old).—1. An epithet applied to women: in contempt.
[Originally a horse or man (Chaucer): especially (1) one over-ridden or
foundered; and (2) unsafe and full of tricks. Hence, by implication, a
knavish, battered, or worn-out whore]. Jadish, adj. (Nashe) =
malicious; tricky; untrustworthy.
1560. Nice Wanton [Dodsley, Old Plays (1874), ii. 172]. Iniquity.
Gup, whore; do ye hear this jade?
1592. Breton, Pilgrimage to Paradise, p. 10. Earthly joys will make
him prove a jade.
1607. Wilkins, Enforced Marriage [Dodsley, Old Plays (1874), ix.
550]. Whore, ay, and jade.
1611. Barry, Ram Alley, iv. Does the filthy jade send to me for
money?
1614. Cook, City Gallant [Dodsley, Old Plays (1874), xi. 226].
She’s good for nothing then, no more than a jade.
1635. Brome, Antipodes, iv. 2. Some cowardly jade That dare not
strike a woman.
1647–80. Rochester, Ramble in St. James’s Park, in Wks. (1728), 82.
But to turn damned abandoned jade, Whom neither head nor tail
persuade.
1678. Cotton, Virgil Travestie, in Wks. (1725), Bk. iv. p. 103. And
(like a simple hair-brain’d jade) This Youth hail Fellow with me
made. Ibid. p. 105. At last a crew of strapping jades, That were or
should have been her Maids.
1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Jade a Term of Reproach given
to Women, as Idle jade, Lazy jade, Silly jade &c.
1712. Steele, Spectator, No. 479. There are perverse jades ... with
whom it requires more than common proficiency in philosophy to ...
live.
1714. Allan Ramsay, Elegy on John Cowper, in Works (1848), i. 294.
And she, poor jade, withouten din Is sent to Leith-Wynd—fit to
spin.
d. 1719. Addison, [quoted in Century]. You now and then see some
handsome young jades.
1725. New Cant. Dict., s.v.
1770. Foote, Lame Lover, i. 1. Why, you pert jade, do you play on
my words?
1772. G. A. Stevens, Songs Comic etc., ‘Chastity’. Turn your face
to that table, at once you will see What faces jades wear.
1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v.
1791. Burns, Tam O’Shanter. A souple jaud she was, an’ strang.
1807. Crabbe, Parish Register. To let an artful jade, The close
recesses of thine heart invade.
1863. Longfellow, The Musician’s Tale. A faded old woman, a
heathenish jade.