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Mar 18, 2025
This week’s theme
Food words used metaphorically

This week’s words
farce
jammy

jammy

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A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg

jammy

PRONUNCIATION:
(JAM-ee)

MEANING:
adjective:
1. Covered with, made with, or like jam; sticky or sweet in texture or appearance.
2. Easy, pleasant, desirable, or profitable, often referring to a situation or opportunity.
3. Lucky, implying an unearned or undeserved advantage.

ETYMOLOGY:
From jam (fruit preserve made by boiling fruits with sugar), metaphorically extended to denote something desirable or fortunate. Earliest documented use: 1853.

USAGE:
“‘So, um, Lucy is the food columnist at the paper,’ Greg said, ‘I’m queuing up for a jammy gig like that.’”
Sophie Cousens; This Time Next Year; Putnam; 2020.

“’Fitzpatrick,’ slurred Brennie. ‘You’re a jammy sod. You rarely lose a bet, you have hollow legs, and you’re your own man. You don’t have a trouble in the world.”
Roddy L’Estrange; Sensory Perception Plants Doubt and Confusion; Irish Times (Dublin); May 7, 2008.

See more usage examples of jammy in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
We take our bearings, daily, from others. To be sane is, to a great extent, to be sociable. -John Updike, writer (18 Mar 1932-2009)

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