Jesse James
14
6.1
- proper noun
- /ˈdʒɛsi dʒeɪmz/
- Jesse James was a legendary outlaw who became famous for his daring bank and train robberies in the American West.
Examples
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Andrew Dominik's debut feature "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford" gets better every time I watch it and is constantly climbing my lists of both the best Westerns of all time and the best films, period.
Blog text (5) -
"Jesse James" took a little while for people to warm up to as well.
Blog text (5) -
Without Kyle Carter, you'd expect Matt Lehman and Jesse James to play a larger role in the passing game, but really, this was the Allen Robinson show.
Blog text (5) -
The story of Jesse James has been told in countless movies, showcasing his life as a notorious figure of the Wild West.
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Many people visit Missouri to see the places associated with Jesse James, the infamous bandit who led a life of crime.
Surface Forms
Morphology
Jesse + James
This is a personal name: knowing the constituent names 'Jesse' and 'James' only signals a person, not the biographical meaning 'famous American outlaw'. The historical and cultural information (dates, outlaw activity) cannot be derived from the name components and requires external world knowledge, so the expression is unpredictable for a B1 learner.
Etymology
Jesse James is the name of a real American outlaw from the 1800s. He fought for the South in the Civil War and later led a gang that robbed banks and trains, and the many stories about his daring crimes made his name stand for 'outlaw' or a kind of 'folk hero' today.