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John Company

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Colonel Harold Malet, in Notes and Queries, August 6th, 1892, p. 116, says thatJohn” is a perversion of “Hon.,” and John Company is the Hon. Company. No doubt Hon., like Hans, may be equal to John, but probably John Company is allied to the familiar John Bull. The Company was abolished in 1857, in consequence of the Indian Mutiny.

“In old times ‘John Companyʹ employed four thousand men in its warehouses.”—Old and New London, ii. 185.

 

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.

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Jog-trot
Joggis or Jogges
John
John-a-Dreams
John-a-Droynes
John-a-Nokes [or Noakes
John Anderson, my Jo
John Audley
John Bull
John Chinaman
John Company
John Doe
John Dory
John Dory
John Long
John Roberts (A)
John Thomas
John Drum’s Entertainment
John in the Wad
John of Bruges
John oGroat