John Henry

American  

noun

plural

John Henries

1. Informal. a person's signature.

2. U.S. Folklore. a legendary Black man of exceptional strength and stamina.

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Henry, John ¹ Cultural  

1. A hero of American folktales and folk songs. The stories portray him as a black man, enormously strong, who worked on railroads or on steamboats and died from exhaustion after he outperformed a steam drill in a contest.

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“John Henry” ² Cultural  

1. An American folksong (see folk music) about the “steel-driving man” John Henry. It contains these lines:

   John Henry said to his captain,

   “A man ain't nothin' but a man,

   And before I'd let your steam drill beat me down,

   I'd die with the hammer in my hand, Lord, Lord!

   I'd die with the hammer in my hand.”

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Etymology

Origin of John Henry

An Americanism dating back to 1910–15; from the proper name

Example Sentences

Her manic energy is offset by the two people to whom she is closest: her fragile 6-year-old cousin, John Henry, and Berenice, the family’s wise black housekeeper.

From The Wall Street Journal

Mr. Walther is editor of the Lamp magazine, a Catholic literary journal, and author of a forthcoming biography of John Henry Newman.

From The Wall Street Journal

National Cash Register founder John Henry Patterson elevated the role of sales and the position of salesperson, recognizing that marketing matters just as much as the product.

From The Wall Street Journal

Our mental model often defaults to an industrial image—John Henry versus the steam drill—where jobs are one dominant task, and automation maps one‑to‑one: Automate the task, eliminate the job.

From The Wall Street Journal

This monument resides directly across from a series of photographs by John Henry featuring Black mothers similarly holding their sons in urban environments.

From Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• impression
• imprint
• line
• point
• record
• scar
• score
• signature
• spot
• stain
• stamp
• streak
• symbol