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Glite Dictionary
👩‍🦰 Unidentified woman 👩‍⚖️ Unknown woman
Jane Doe

Jane Doe

5 4.9
A name used for an unknown woman often in hospitals or police reports
  • proper noun
  • Jargon
translation icon : Jane Doe
  • In other words, funds that were only accessible to millionaire private banking clients open their doors to John and Jane Doe—as long as they use Orama.

Examples

  • The school, it says, "acted with deliberate indifference towards the rights of Jane Doe and other female students to a safe and secure educational environment, thus materially impairing Jane Doe's ability to pursue her education at Wesleyan in violation of the requirements of Title IX."

    Blog text (12)

  • "Wesleyan did not contact its rape counselor... offer any other services or academic help" to Jane Doe.

    Blog text (12)

  • According to the lawsuit, following Jane Doe's reporting of the incident to Wesleyan, school officials again advised in a campuswide email that students stay away from the frat house.

    Blog text (12)

  • Jane Doe, after reporting the incident, became a target of those who protested a recommendation by Wesleyan officials that students avoid the fraternity, the lawsuit says.

    Blog text (12)

  • The school, it says, "acted with deliberate indifference towards the rights of Jane Doe and other female students to a safe and secure educational environment, thus materially impairing Jane Doe's ability to pursue her education at Wesleyan in violation of the requirements of Title IX."

    Blog text (12)

  • The police referred to the unidentified victim as Jane Doe in their reports.

  • In legal documents, she is often cited as Jane Doe to protect her identity.

  • The case of Jane Doe highlights the importance of addressing issues of anonymity in sexual assault cases.

Surface Forms

Jane Doe main

Morphology

Jane + Doe

This is a conventional placeholder name whose meaning ('an unidentified or anonymous woman') is a lexicalized legal/social convention rather than a compositional result of the parts; knowing the names 'Jane' and 'Doe' does not let a B1 learner infer anonymity. While many languages have analogous placeholder names, the specific form and use are language-specific and idiomatic, so the meaning is not predictable from the constituents.

Etymology

Jane Doe began as the female version of old fake names such as 'John Doe' that courts used for people with no known name. That's why Jane Doe is used today to mean 'an anonymous or unidentified woman' in police, hospital, and court papers.