Origin of the slang term 'jones'

[bbs2k]

From an old Katrina story: Nagin blamed the outbreak of crime and violence on drug addicts who are cut off from their drug supplies and wandering the city “looking to take the edge off their jones.”

I’ve heard the term ‘jones’ used before a couple times in reference to someone going through withdrawl of an addiction. Where did it come from? Google and Wikipedia have not been helpful in my search. Too many goddam jones’ I guess.

[Khadaji]

The Word Detective says:

The proper name “Jones” is, of course, very common in the US and Britain (in fact, I am named after my great-grandfather, Col. Evan Nathanael Jones). But research since the 1960s into why “jones” took on the slang connotation of “a drug habit” has, unfortunately, run aground on lack of evidence. It may be that there once was an infamous drug dealer by that name, of course, or that “Mister Jones” was a common euphemism for one’s local heroin pusher. “Mister Jones” did serve in mid-20th century slang as a personification of a powerful and insular social elite (as in Bob Dylan’s song “Ballad of a Thin Man” with its refrain of “Because something is happening here, But you don’t know what it is, Do you, Mister Jones?”), making it the rough equivalent of “The Man.” It may be that “jones” in the drug sense thus arose as a reference to powers outside the community’s control that were considered responsible for the oppression and devastation caused by drug addiction. This interpretation is reinforced by the fact that “jones” in the drug addiction sense has always been used negatively. Whoever this “Jones” was, he was nobody’s friend.

In any case, by about 1970, “jones” had percolated into more widespread slang use in its modern “gotta have it” sense.

[CookingWithGas]

I got a basketball jones, oh baby, oo-oo-ooo.

[Squink]

Me, me and Mrs., Mrs. Jones, Mrs. Jones, Mrs. Jones, got a thing going on.
We both knew that it was wrong in 1972, and it’s wrong today.

[First_Amongst_Daves]

So for those of us not up on American colloquialisms, “jonesing” is to crave?

[hajario]

@First Amongst Daves

So for those of us not up on American colloquialisms, “jonesing” is to crave?

Yes. At first it was more like an addiction thing as in, that junkie has a herion jones. Now it can be, I am jonesing for some ice cream.

[Mindfield]

I had always assumed it was related to the phrase, “Keeping up with the Joneses,” which is an expression of one’s desire to have the latest and greatest, just like the proverbial grass-is-greener Joneses next door do. Thus, “Jonesing” eventually trickled down to meaning a desire or craving for something good (drugs, for drug users). It may be further posited that this word originated in the drug culture and, because marijuana (for example) tends to induce “the munchies,” “Jonesing” became a reference to a food craving by extension.

That’s my theory anyway.

[MrSquishy]

@CookingWithGas

I got a basketball jones, oh baby, oo-oo-ooo.

Bah, every time I see the word “jones” in this context I get “Basketball Jones, I got a Basketball Jones” running through my head for the rest of the day. :mad: