J

[jey] /dʒeɪ/

noun, plural J’s or Js, j’s or js.
1.
the tenth letter of the English alphabet, a consonant.
2.
any spoken sound represented by the letter J or j, as in just, major, or rajah.
3.
something having the shape of a J .
4.
a written or printed representation of the letter J or j.
5.
a device, as a printer’s type, for reproducing the letter J or j.
Symbol.
1.
Mathematics. a unit vector on the y-axis of a coordinate system.
2.
Engineering. the imaginary number .
1.
.
2.
Physics. joule; joules.
Also, j.
Symbol.
1.
the tenth in order or in a series, or, when I is omitted, the ninth.
2.
(sometimes lowercase) the medieval Roman numeral for 1.
1.
Cards. .
2.
.
3.
.
4.
.
symbol
1.
(maths) the unit vector along the y-axis
2.
(obsolete) Also called i. the imaginary number √–1
/dʒeɪ/
noun (pl) j’s, J’s, Js
1.
the tenth letter and seventh consonant of the modern English alphabet
2.
a speech sound represented by this letter, in English usually a voiced palato-alveolar affricate, as in jam
symbol
1.
(cards) jack
2.
joule(s)
3.
current density
abbreviation
4.
Japan (international car registration)

the letter is a late modification of Roman -i-, originally a scribal creation in continental Medieval Latin to distinguish small -i- in cursive writing from the strokes of other letters, especially in the final positions of words. But in English, -y- was used for this, and -j- was introduced c.1600-1640 to take up the consonantal sound that had evolved from -i- since Late Latin times. This usage first was attested in Spanish, where it was in place before 1600. English dictionaries continued to lump together words beginning in -i- and -j- until 19c., and -j- formerly was skipped when letters were used to express serial order.

Used in modern writing to represent Latin -i- before a, e, o, u in the same syllable, which in Latin was sounded as the consonant in Modern English you, yam, etc., but the custom is controversial among Latinists:

The character J, j, which represents the letter sound in some school-books, is an invention of the seventeenth century, and is not found in MSS., nor in the best texts of the Latin authors. [Lewis]

J abbr.
joule
J
Abbreviation of joule

noun

(also jay or jay smoke or J smoke) A marijuana cigarette; joint

[1960s+ Narcotics; fr the J of Mary Jane, ”marijuana,” or the j of joint]

A derivative and redesign of APL with added features and control structures. J is purely functional with lexical scope and more conventional control structures, plus several new concepts such as function rank and function arrays. J was designed and developed by Kennneth E. Iverson and Roger Hui . J uses only the ASCII character set but has a spelling scheme that retains the advantages of APL’s special alphabet. J is a conventional procedural programming language but can be used as a purely functional language.
Version 4.1 for MS-DOS, Sun, Mac, Archimedes. Source available in C from Iverson Software, +1 (416) 925 6096.
Version 6 package from ISI includes an interpreter and tutorial. Ported to DEC, NeXT, SGI, Sun-3, Sun-4, Vax, RS/6000, MIPS, Macintosh, Acorn Archimedes, IBM PC, Atari, 3b1, Amiga.
(ftp://watserv1.waterloo.edu/languages/apl/j).
J-mode GNU Emacs macros available by (ftp://think.com/pub/j/gmacs/j-interaction-mode.el).
[“APL\?”, Roger K.W. Hui et al, APL90 Conf Proc, Quote Quad 20(4):192-200].
(1992-10-31)
1.
current density
2.
joule
1.
jack
2.
Japan (international vehicle ID)
3.
Jewish (as in personal ads)
1.
Japanese
2.
Journal
3.
judge
4.
justice