John Luther Jones
- proper noun
- Many people know the legend of John Luther Jones as the heroic engineer Casey Jones.
Examples
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A ballad immortalized the bravery of John Luther Jones after his tragic train accident.
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The story of John Luther Jones has become a part of American folklore.
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The story of John Luther Jones is quite inspiring.
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John Luther Jones became a folk hero after his tragic death.
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A ballad immortalized the bravery of John Luther Jones after his tragic train accident.
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Many people know the legend of John Luther Jones as the heroic engineer Casey Jones.
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The story of John Luther Jones has become a part of American folklore.
Synonyms
1
7.7
An American train driver who died trying to stop a crash and is remembered in folk songs
Surface Forms
Morphology
John + Luther + Jones
This is a full proper name referring to a specific historical individual; knowing the constituent given names and surname does not let a learner infer the person's identity, life story, or the nickname 'Casey Jones'. Proper names are arbitrary labels requiring cultural or encyclopedic knowledge rather than compositional word knowledge, so a B1 learner would not derive the meaning from the parts.
Etymology
John Luther Jones was a real American train driver known as Casey Jones who stayed at his controls to slow his train and died trying to stop a crash. A popular ballad made him famous, so his name now stands for 'bravery' and the idea of a famous train driver.