I'm "Jones"ing for meaning!

Kitchenpete- I must have been living under a rock for the last few years. I had never heard the expression. When I looked it up, apparently it has a drug (as well as other) connotations:

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=jones&f=1

Interesting!

I always assumed it was derived from the saying "trying keep up with the Jones'" which means wanting to acquire many things.

Jonesing = wanting

and I thought of a song, KP. Are you surprised? "Have You Met Miss Jones".

I think Miss Jones actually met Miss Otis, via Ella Fitzgerald.

Me and Mrs Jones :wink:

Along Came Jones :wink:

Jones Versus Jones :wink:

Don't let the Jones's get you down (Temptations) :wink:

jones is also used around here to mean "that sucks"

I thought of Bridget Jones. Lol, she's a card.

Tyrone Shoelaces, he's got a basketball jones...

From a novelty song from the late sixties or early seventies, I think. So the idiom has been around at least that long, probably longer.

source: Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged. Merriam-Webster, 2002. http://unabridged.merriam-webster.com (26 Nov. 2004).

I always thought it had something to do with Tom Jones, not the rocker, but the book and/or movie.

The idiom is much, much older than either Tom Jones, book or oozy singer. We need someone with access to an OED to look up the first usage. I'm betting 18th century.

Joe

K.P. and all, this was the only thing that I could find:

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/edit/archives/2003/05/11/205551

From the online etymology dictionary: Phrase keep up with the Joneses (1913, Amer.Eng.) is from the title of a comic strip by Arthur R. Momand. The slang sense "intense desire, addiction" (1968) probably arose from earlier use of Jones as a synonym for "heroin," presumably from the proper name, but the connection, if any, is obscure.

Apparently, it is related to 'john', and this definition kind of cracked me up, so to speak:

masc. proper name, c.1160, from M.L. Johannes, from L.L. Joannes, from Gk. Ioannes, from Heb. Yohanan (in full y'hohanan) lit. "Jehovah has favored," from hanan "he was gracious." As the name of John the Baptist and John the Evangelist, it was one of the most common Christian given names, and in England by early 14c. it rivaled William in popularity. O.Fr. form was Jean, but in England its variants Johan, Jehan yielded Jan, Jen (cf. surname Jensen). Welsh form was Ieuan, (see Evan), but Ioan was adopted for the Welsh Authorized Version of the Bible, hence frequency of Jones as a Welsh surname. Feminine form was Joan, Latinized as Johanna. Colloquial John Hancock "signature" (1903, sometimes, through some unexplainable error, John Henry) is from the signer of the Declaration of Independence, either from his signing first or most prominently. The family name is attested from 1276 in Yorkshire, a dim. (see cock) of Hann, a very common given name in 13c. Yorkshire as a pet name for Henry or John. Johnny-come-lately first attested 1839.