jenny

The word jenny is used to refer to certain female animals, especially a female donkey or female bird.

When capitalized, Jenny is a proper name. Its sense referring to female donkeys is typically used in technical discussions of breeding. Unrelatedly, jenny can also refer to the spinning jenny, a machine for spinning yarn.

Example: I raise donkeys, and our jenny just had a foal.

Jenny is probably best known as a name. Many people are named Jenny, but it can also be a nickname. Today, it’s often used as a nickname for Jennifer (like Jenny from the Block), but traditionally it has also been used as a nickname for Janet and Jane. Jenny as a proper name for girls is typically cited as the basis of its use to refer to a female animal. The first records of this sense come from the 1600s.

You’ve heard of a jackass—the term literally refers to a male donkey and comes from the name Jack. The female equivalent is a jenny-ass. Jenny is most commonly associated with female donkeys, but jenny has historically been used as a term for other female animals, particularly birds, especially wrens.

Jenny was once used as a short way of saying spinning jenny, a spinning machine that allowed multiple threads to be spun at once, rather than just one. It’s unclear why jenny was used in its name.

What are some synonyms for jenny?

• female donkey
• spinning jenny
• jennet

What are some words that often get used in discussing jenny?

• Jennifer
• Jane
• Janet
• donkey
• female
• jackass
• yarn
• wren

The word jenny referring to a female animal is most commonly applied to donkeys, typically by people who work with donkeys.

Hi, Donkey!!! This adorable five-day old Jenny (a female donkey in farmer language) makes me so happy. I wish I could pet her! She is at my mom and dad’s farm in Florida. So cute!!! @FlemRarSchools pic.twitter.com/xXMx9HMCRV

— Kari McGann (@karimcgann) March 21, 2020

Lucky Sixpence x Jenny Wren Farthing SPECIAL. A unique Jenny Wren sixpence will be the runners up prize in the #ripglastonbury #hairygrowler raffle / giveaway. pic.twitter.com/LnKsTmowTN

— Harry Growler (@hairygrowler) March 24, 2020

Up my garden:
Great to see Jenny Wren working hard along the picket fence, bobbing in and out staccato fashion.
Back lawn looking its best in early spring sunshine and before big oak tree comes into leaf.
Magpie ‘colony’ on the move today, counted 9 without trying

— Henry Exton (@ExtonH) March 24, 2020

Is jenny used correctly in the following sentence?

The offspring of a jenny and a male horse is called a hinny.