Jaffa

//ˈd͡ʒɑfə// name, noun, slang

name, noun, slang ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A Jaffa orange. informal

    "They were together, at the flicks on Saturday night, eating Jaffas and smiling at each other occasionally in the dark."

  2. 2
    A type of sweet orange, normally seedless.
  3. 3
    An impotent or infertile male. slang
  4. 4
    A ball that is very difficult for the batsman to hit because it moves erratically either through the air or off the pitch
Proper Noun
  1. 1
    A port in western Israel.

Synonyms

All synonyms
joppayafo

Example

More examples

"He has a phobia of Jaffa Cakes."

Etymology

Etymology 1

Etymology tree Biblical Hebrew יָפוֹ (yāfō)bor. Arabic يَافَا (yāfā)bor. English Jaffa Borrowed from Arabic يَافَا (yāfā), borrowed from Biblical Hebrew יָפוֹ (yāfō).

Etymology 2

From Jaffa, an ancient port city in what is now Israel from which the oranges were exported. The sense "impotent male" is a reference to being "seedless"; see seed. The cricketing sense, of a 'sweet ball' (from the bowler's perspective), is a metaphor further reinforced in Australian English where Jaffa is also a trademark for a popular lolly that is red and round.

Related phrases

jaffa cakejaffa orange

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.