Janus vs Jan - What's the difference?
janus | jan |
(Roman god) The god of gates and doorways; having two faces looking in opposite directions.
* 1789 , (Edward Gibbon), The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire , Volume 5, 1805,
* 1818 , (Susan Edmonstoune Ferrier), , Chapter V,
* 1905 , (Livy), Canon Roberts (translator), , Book 1: The Earliest Legends,
* 2008 , John Lowe, "Laughin' up a World:'' Their Eyes Were Watching God ''and the (Wo)Man of Words''", in Harold Bloom (editor), ''Interpretations: Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God ,
A two-faced person, a hypocrite.
(astronomy) A moon of Saturn.
A female nickname, sometimes used as a formal given name.
* 1899 Paul Leicester Ford: Janice Meredith : Chapter 1:
* 2008 , (Stephen King), Just After Sunset , Simon and Schuster (2009), ISBN 1416586652, page 129:
A male given name, in English mostly applied to foreign language speakers.
English diminutives of female given names
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As proper nouns the difference between janus and jan
is that janus is the god of gates and doorways; having two faces looking in opposite directions while Jan is abbreviation of January|lang=en.As a noun jan is
obsolete form of lang=en.janus
English
(wikipedia Janus)Proper noun
(en proper noun)page 166,
- But the brazen temple of Janus was left standing in the forum; of a size sufficient only to contain the statue of the god, five cubits height, of a human form, but with two faces, directed to the east and west.
- "I'll tell you what we can do," cried her persevering patroness; "we can go as masks, and Lady Juliana shall know nothing about it. That will save the scandal of an open revolt or a tiresome dispute. Half the company will be masked; so, if you keep your own secret, nobody will find it out. Come, what characters shall we choose?"
- "That of Janus , I think, would be the most suitable for me," said Mary.
- Thinking that the ferocity of his subjects might be mitigated by the disuse of arms, he built the temple of Janus at the foot of the Aventine as an index of peace and war, to signify when it was open that the State was under arms, and when it was shut that all the surrounding nations were at peace.
page 75,
- Janus , with his two heads, his mystery, his depiction as both laughing and serious, and the obvious parallel this forms with the masks of attic tragedy and comedy would make him a double of the two-headed man, the conjurer, and an associate of the trickster in folk comedy as well.
Usage notes
The temple of Janus was traditionally open only during time of war. Hence, for example: * The present occupants of the Treasury Bench are determined that so long as they retain their places the Temple of Janus''' shall not be closed.'' — '''1879 February 27, , ''On the Zulu War (speech before the UK House of Commons).Derived terms
* Janus-faced * Janus green B * Janus-headed * Janus particle * Janian ----jan
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl)Etymology 2
Shortened from (Janet) and (Janice).Proper noun
(en proper noun)- "Yes, Mommy," answered Janice. Then she turned to her friend and asked, "Shall I wear my light chintz and kenton kerchief, or my purple and white striped Persian?" "Sufficiently smart for a country lass, Jan ," cried her friend.
- She's startled. How long has it been since he called her Jax instead of Janet or Jan ? The last is a nickname she secretly hates. It makes her think of that syrupy-sweet actress on Lassie when she was a kid, the little boy (Timmy, his name was Timmy) always fell down a well or got bitten by a snake or trapped under a rock, and what kind of parents put a kid's life in the hands of a fucking collie?