"slightly open, neither open nor shut," 1718, also on a jar, on the jar, perhaps from Scottish dialectal a char "turned a little way," earlier on char (mid-15c.) "on the turn (of a door or gate)," from Middle English char "a turn," from Old English cier "a turn" (see chore). For first element see a- (1). For unusual change of ch- to j-, compare jowl.
also ROTC, 1916, American English, initialism (acronym) for Reserve Officers' Training Corps, established as part of the National Defense Act of 1916.
late 14c., "large, rounded vase used to preserve the ashes of the dead," from Latin urna "a jar, vessel of baked clay, water-jar; vessel for the ashes of the dead" (also used as a ballot box and for drawing lots), probably from earlier *urc-na, akin to urceus "pitcher, jug," and from the same source as Greek hyrke "earthen vessel." But another theory connects it to Latin urere "to burn" (compare bust (n.1)).
modern Leiden, city in Holland, said to be from Germanic *leitha- "canal." Leyden jar, phial used for accumulating and storing static electricity (1755), so called because it was first described (in 1746) by physicist Pieter van Musschenbroek (1692-1761) of Leyden.
"U.S. soldier," 1864, American English, said to have been in oral use from 1854, or from the Mexican-American War (1847), it is perhaps from resemblance of big buttons on old uniforms to a sort of cookie or biscuit of that name, a boiled dumpling of raised dough (attested from 1680s), but there are other conjectures.
"of or pertaining to Canopus," the town in ancient lower Egypt (famous for its temple of Serapis), hence canopic jar, canopic vase, made there, with lids in the forms of human heads, which often held the entrails of embalmed bodies (1878).
late 14c., from Anglo-French subsidie, Old French subside "help, aid, assistance, contribution," from Latin subsidium "a help, aid, assistance, (military) reinforcements, troops in reserve," from subsidere "to settle down, stay, remain" (see subside).
