Jesse

From Ancient Greek Ἰεσσαί (Iessaí), from Hebrew יִשַׁי‎ (Yishai)

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈd͡ʒɛ.si/
• Homophones: Jessie, Jessi

Jesse (plural Jesses)

1. (biblical) The father of king David.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), imprinted at London: By Robert Barker, […], OCLC 964384981:

     : 1 Samuel 17:12:

     Now David was the son of that Ephrathite of Bethlehemjudah, whose name was Jesse; and he had eight sons; and the man went among men for an old man in the days of Saul.

2. A male given name of biblical origin.
   • 1882, Jesse James (folk song):

     Jesse James was a lad that killed many a man, / He robbed the Glendale train. / He stole from the rich and he gave to the poor, / He'd a hand and a heart and a brain.

3. A female given name, a variant of Jessie.
   • 1985 Alice Munro, The Progress of Love, Chatto&Windus 1987, →ISBN, page 166-167:

     We had decided to change the spelling of our names. Mine was to become Jesse instead of Jessie, and hers was to be Meribeth, not MaryBeth. We signed these names to the test papers we turned in at school.

     The teacher waved my paper in the air. "I can't give a mark to this person, because I don't know who this person is," she said. "Who is this Jesse?" She spelled the name out loud. "That is a boy's name. Does anybody here know a boy named Jesse?"

• Jess, Jessie
• give someone Jesse (to scold or beat)

Jesse (plural Jesses)

1. (architecture) A representation of the genealogy of Christ, in decorative art, such as a genealogical tree in stained glass or a branched candlestick.

• Jesse in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

• IPA^(key): /ˈjesːe/, [ˈje̞s̠ːe̞]
• Hyphenation: Jes‧se

The Vulgate Latin name Iesse, Jesse was known in medieval Finland, but the modern revival of the name is much due to English Jesse.

Jesse

1. A male given name, popular since the 1980s.

• Iisai

Finnish Jeesus.

Jesse

1. (slang) Jesus.