“Jones” (a craving) and Great Jones Alley/Street
Entry in progress—B.P.
Wikipedia: Great Jones Street
Great Jones Street is a street in New York City’s NoHo district in Manhattan, essentially another name for 3rd Street between Broadway and the Bowery.
The street was named for Samuel Jones, a lawyer who became known as “The Father of The New York Bar,” due to his work on revising New York State’s statutes in 1789 with Richard Varick, who also had a street named after him in SoHo. Jones was a member of the New York State Assembly from 1796 to 1799, and also served as the state’s first Comptroller.
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In popular culture
. According to the New York Daily News, the verb “Jonesing”, a word used to describe an intense craving, originally for a drug, but now extended to everyday use, comes from Great Jones Street, a former junkie hangout, although other explorations into the etymology of the slang expression have been proposed.
(Oxford English Dictionary)
Jones, n.
a. Symptoms of withdrawal from heroin or another drug.
1965 C. Brown Manchild in Promised Land x. 272 My jones is on me; it’s on me something terrible. I feel so sick.
1974 J. Willwerth Jones: Portrait of Mugger vii. 99, I was using half a bundle a day, twelve bags, and dope was easy to get. I didn’t know what a ‘Jones’ (a habit coming down) was. I never had to be sick.
b. Any intense craving or desire. Cf. yen n.2 2.
1970 C. Major Dict. Afro-Amer. Slang 71 Jones, a fixation..; compulsive attachment.
1971 Black World Oct. 62 Blind people got a hummin jones if you notice.
Jones, v.
1. intr. To experience the symptoms of withdrawal from heroin; (later also) to feel a physical craving for any addictive substance. Also with down. Usu. in pres. pple.
1971 Kennebec (Maine) Jrnl. 28 Oct. 33/5 How many stayed off drugs after ‘Jonesing down’ at an Army amnesty center?
2. intr. In extended use. To feel an intense craving or desire for something. Freq. with for. Usu. in pres. pple.
1989 P. Munro U.C.L.A. Slang 53 She’s jonesing for those diamond earrings.
Old Fulton NY Post Cards
30 June 1971, The Leader-Herald (Gloversville, NY), “Coming Back Was Real Agony, Ex-Drug Addict Reports” by an ex-drug addict as told to Lee Linder (AP), pg. 9, col. 4:
I went there in the middle of my ‘jonesing,’ my withdrawing.
23 November 1971, Register-Republic (Rockford, IL), “GI heroin ‘freaks’ pose problem for home front” by Flora Lewis, pg. A-6, cols. 5-6:
In Long Binh’s intensive-care ward for men going through severe heroin withdrawal pains (called jonesing in GI slang), told me, “Units are divided into juicers (men who like drink), heads (men on marijuana and amphetamines) and freaks (men on heroin).
Google Books
Drug Use and Social Policy:
An AMS Anthology
By Jackwell Susman
New York, NY: AMS Press
1972
Pg. 167:
In Long Binh’s intensive-care ward for men going through severe heroin withdrawal pains (called jonesing in GI slang), told me, “Units are divided into juicers (men who like drink), heads (men on marijuana and amphetamines) and freaks (men on heroin).