JORDAN, a pot, chamber-pot. (L.?—Gk.?—Heb.?)  M.E. Iordan, Chaucer. C.T. 12239; see Tyrwhitt's note.  Also Iurdon, Iordeyne; see Prompt. Parv., and Way's note; p. 267.  Halliwell explains it as "a kind of pot or vessel formerly used by physicians and alchemists.  It was very much in the form of a soda-water bottle, only the neck was larger, not much smaller than the body of the vessel; &c."  β. Origin uncertain; but it may very well have been named from the river Jordan (Lat. Iordanes, Gk. Ἰορδάνης, Arab. urdunn, Rich. Pers. Dict. p. 56).  The explanation is simple enough, and accounts at the same time for the English use of Jordan as a surname.  "We must remember this was the time of the Crusades.  It was the custom of all pilgrims who visited the Holy Land to bring back a bottle of water from the Jordan for baptismal purposes... It was thus that Jordan as a surname has arisen.  I need not remind students of early records how common is Jordan as a Christian name, such cognomens as "Jordan de Abingdon" or "Jordan le Clerc" being of the most familiar occurrence;" Bardsley, Our English Surnames; p. 53.  Thus Jordan is merely short for "Jordan-bottle."  Halliwell further explains how the later sense (as in Shakespeare) came about; the bottle being, in course of time, occasionally used for baser purposes.  ¶ The explanation usually given, that jordan, earthen, from Dan. and Swed. jord, earth, is impossible.  The latter syllable was originally long, as in Chaucer's use of Iordanës, riming with Galianës, and as shewn by the M.E. spelling Iordeyne.  Besides which, there is no such word as jord-en; the Dan. and Swed. adj. is jord-isk, which, moreover, does not mean "earthen," but rather "earthly" or "terrestrial."  The suggestion is, in fact, inadmissible. (An Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, Skeat, 1893).