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Glite Dictionary
John Henry

John Henry

6.7
A folk hero from American stories, a strong Black railroad worker who beats a steam drill but dies from exhaustion
  • proper noun
  • /dʒɒn ˈhɛnri/
  • Literature
: John Henry
  • Many songs have been written about John Henry and his legendary strength.

Examples

  • The story of John Henry is a classic American folk tale.

  • The story of John Henry has inspired countless songs and poems about strength and perseverance.

  • Many children learned about John Henry in school while studying American folklore.

  • The legend of John Henry embodies the struggle between man and machine during the Industrial Revolution.

  • In the story, John Henry competed against a steam drill to prove his strength.

  • According to legend, John Henry was a giant man who could drive steel spikes faster than any machine.

  • The tale of John Henry illustrates the struggle of man versus machine in American folklore.

Surface Forms

John Henry main

Morphology

John + Henry

The expression is a proper name composed of two given names with no compositional semantics; knowing 'John' and 'Henry' as names gives no information about the folk-hero attributes or the legend. Understanding that this refers to a specific American folk hero therefore requires cultural or encyclopedic knowledge rather than derivation from the constituent words.

Etymology

John Henry is a hero from old American stories. One popular tale says he raced a steam drill with a heavy hammer, won but died from the effort, so John Henry now means someone who 'works very hard' or who fights against 'machines' and new tools.