"Jazz" is not attested before 1913

Gerald Cohen gcohen at UMR.EDU
Thu Mar 29 02:49:49 UTC 2001


    Once more I've been looking through Jonathon Green's _Cassell's
Dictionary Of Slang_  (2000), which regards the term "jazz" as being
used as early as the late 19th century:
        "jazz n. 1) [late 19th C-1930s ] (orig. US Black) sexual
intercourse...."

     There is in fact no attestation of "jazz" in any sense prior to 1913. None.
The only previous one advanced is the 1909 attestation in OED2, but
that one has been proven to be a mistake.

---Gerald Cohen



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