juneteenth
/ˌd͡ʒunˈtinθ/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 1.78 in modern English
20
Scrabble Score
10
Letters
2
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
name
Also more fully as Juneteenth Day: the United States national holiday commemorating the end of slavery, observed on June 19.
American usage; Countable; Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "There was^([sic – meaning were]) not so many colored people in the city as usual on Saturday evening, all of them, very near, being out at the "Juneteenth siliibration.""
- "If there is plenty of sunshine within the next ten days there will be sufficient supply of watermelons in Southwest Texas to take care of the "Juneteenth" celebrations of San Antonio's colored population."
- ""'Twere Juneteenth day," she began reverentially, "when my light firs' broke. The darkies all bunched up down in the live oak grove were a-singin' an' a-dancin', 'spressin' their glory 'cause they warnt no mo' slaves nohow.["]"
- ""But whut if it rains?" asked Josy. "It always do rain on Juneteenth." / "Dat's jes' de way of it," said John. "Someone is always a-th'owin' cold water on eve'ything I does.""
- "He had invited her to attend the Juneteenth picnic as his guest all day. And now he had done something that never, in all his life, had he heard of any colored boy doing before—planned an expensive outing right on the eve of the big annual event. [...] "Juneteenth"—white people also pretty generally use the phrase—is their Emancipation Day, and it is the one day in the year when every Caucasian is supposed to consider the comfort and enjoyment of his negro friends ahead of his own."
- "Truck drivers, business men, and school teachers belonging to the racial group have told me tales, but the best of tale-tellers has been some ex-slave buoyed up by the spirit of a Nineteenth of June celebration—the "Juneteenth"—the day on which all colored people in the South commemorate the freedom of their race from slavery. The significance of the day is so great and the tales I have collected are so bound up with the legalized slavery which, in 1865, this day put an end to, that I have used Juneteenth as a title. Nobody who does not understand a Juneteenth celebration can ever understand the Negro or his songs and tales."
Etymology
Blend of June + nineteenth, commemorating the anniversary of June 19, 1865, when Union Army General Gordon Granger (1821–1876) issued General Order No. 3 in Galveston, Texas, to enforce President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation of September 22, 1862. The General Order stated that all previously enslaved people in Texas were now free. The word entered wider usage after becoming a federal holiday in 2021.
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˌd͡ʒunˈtinθ/
- British English: /ˌd͡ʒuːnˈtiːnθ/
Usage
- American usage
- Countable
- Uncountable