Jonah

From the Hebrew יוֹנָה (yonáh, “dove”). Doublet of Jonas.

1=Book of Jonah

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈd͡ʒoʊnə/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈd͡ʒəʊnə/

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -əʊnə

Jonah

1. A male given name from Hebrew.
   • 2010, Maggie O'Farrell, The Hand That First Held Mine, Headline, →ISBN, page 165:

     'It's Jonah,' Ted says.
     Simmy considers this. 'As in the whale?'
     'Yep.'
     'You know,' Simmy says, 'that people are going to say that to him for ever more?'
     'What? The whale thing?'
     'Yes.'
     Ted shrugs again. 'Well. He'll get used to it. All names have got some associations. Anyway, he looks like a Jonah. And I like the name Jonah—'
     'Obviously,' Simmy cuts in, 'since you chose it.'

2. (biblical) A minor prophet who was cast into the sea and swallowed by a great fish.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Jonah 1:15:
     :

     So they took up Jonah, and cast him forth into the sea: and the sea ceased from her raging.

3. A book of the Old Testament and the Hebrew Tanakh.
4. The 10th sura (chapter) of the Qur'an.

• Jonah fishing
• Jonahism

Jonah (plural Jonahs)

1. (nautical, slang) A person who brings a ship bad luck.
   • 2008, Richard Blake, Evangelicals in the Royal Navy, 1775-1815: Blue Lights & Psalm-singers:

     Superstitious sailors regarded a clergyman as an unlucky shipmate, a Jonah whose presence would never be welcome.

2. (slang, by extension) Any person or object which is deemed to cause bad luck; a jinx.
   • 1979, John Le Carré, Smiley's People, Folio Society, published 2010, page 61:

     ‘My first agent, and he's dead. It's incredible. I feel like a complete Jonah.’

• J. van der Schaar, “Woordenboek van voornamen”, Utrecht, Antwerpen 1964, Aula-boeken 176, Uitgeverij Het Spectrum

• Johan

From English Jonah, from Hebrew יוֹנָה (yonáh, “dove”).

Jonah

1. a male given name from Hebrew
2. a female given name from Hebrew