d. 1529. Skelton, Against the Scottes, in Wks. (Dyce), i. 185.
Kynge Jamy, ... my jo.
1659. Brome, The English Moor, in Wks. (1873), i. 3. Clap him, and
stroke him: Ha, my joe.
1635. Glapthorne, The Hollander, in Wks. (1874), i. 151. The Twibil
Knights (confusion to them, my Jo!) had made me drunk.
1727. Ramsay, Bonny Tweed-side, in Wks. (1848), ii. 244. I’ll make
it my care To secure myself a jo.
d. 1796. Burns, ‘John Anderson, my Jo’ [Title].
Verb. (theatrical).—To deride; to get at (q.v.); to take liberties with
the text, ‘business’, or audience.
1865. Kingsley, The Hillyards and the Burtons, liii. Gertie adduced
the fate of the children who had called after—or, as she expressed,
joed—the prophet Elisha.
1866. Pall Mall Gazette, 23 Jan., p. 244. There they was joeying
away in style, making the people laugh until the house shook again.
Not for Joe.—See Joseph.
Joe Manton, subs. (old).—A name given to fowling-pieces made by Joseph
Manton, a celebrated London gunsmith. Also Manton.
Joe Miller, subs. phr. (common).—A stale joke; a dull tale; a chesnut
(q.v.). [From a collection entitled Joe Miller’s Jest book published
circa 1750, the term having been used to pass off not only the original
stock but thousands of jokes manufactured long after]. Hence
Joe-Millerism (subs.) and Joe-Millerize (verb.).
1789. Geo. Parker, Life’s Painter, 96. The Narrator should not
laugh immoderately, and what he delivers, should not be found in
every common jest book, or a Joe Miller, page 14.
1850. F. E. Smedley, Frank Fairlegh, liv. ‘Well, of all the vile
puns I ever heard, that, which I believe to be an old joe miller,
is the worst.’
1859. Times, ‘Rev. of Ramsay’s Reminiscences’, 25 Oct. There is
more ‘wit’, more mere word-flashing in one page of our familiar
joe, than in the whole of Dean Ramsay’s book.
1883. Notes and Queries, 6 S. viii. 489. All classes are given to
such repetitions, and the only differences are that every set has
its own peculiar style or class of joe millers and old tales.
1885. Punch, August 1, p. 54. What? A weir yonder? Oh! I’m a-weir
of it. There! Better old joe millers than old saws.
1890. Speaker, 22 Feb., p. 211, col. 2. We must not spoil any of
Mr. Montagu Williams’s endless laughable stories, though here and
there one looks very like an old joe with a new face.
Joe Savage, subs. phr. (rhyming).—A cabbage.
Joey, subs. (American thieves’).—1. A hypocrite.—Matsell (1859).