Jasper

Pronunciation

• US enPR: jăsʹpÉ™r
• British IPA: /ˈdʒæspÉ™/

From Old French jaspre, a variant of jaspe (modern French jaspe), from Latin iaspis, from Ancient Greek ἴασπις, ultimately (via an oriental language) from Persian یشپ.

Full definition of jasper

Noun

1. (obsolete) Any bright-coloured kind of chalcedony apart from cornelian.
2. (mineralogy) An opaque, impure variety of quartz, of red, yellow, and other dull colors, breaking conchoidally with a smooth surface.
3. Jasperware pottery.

Derived terms

From the male personal name Jasper.

Noun

1. (UK, colloquial) A wasp. (West Country dialects, Somerset County)
2. (US, slang) A person, a guy, especially seen as naïve or simple.
• 1975, Tom Waits, ‘Nighthawk Postcards (From Easy Street)’:Standing on the corner like a just-got-in-town jasper.
• 2006, Thomas Pynchon, Against the Day, Vintage 2007, p. 122:“That jasper,” sniggered Darby, “never pulled out his ‘dummy’ for nothing but pissing, I bet you!”
• 1968, Charles Portis, True Grit, The Saturday Evening Post"I stood there through almost an hour of it before they called Rooster Cogburn to the stand. I had guessed wrong as to which one he was, picking out a younger and slighter man with a badge on his shirt. And I was surprised when an old one-eyed jasper that was built along the lines of Grover Cleveland went up and was sworn."

Anagrams

• japers