FW: "Jass" card game in 1911 (from Barry Popik)

[Cohen, Gerald Leonard]

Original message, 3/22/2012 from W Brewer:
<snip>
'On the other hand, ages ago, one of my professors, Adolf Hoffmann,
disdainfully referred to jazz as [dee YACHTS.muZiK] (??? foolish-music???).'

*   *   *

A clarification:
"Yachts" here is the German word "Jux" (derives from Latin "iocus" = "joke") and expresses "joke/high spirits/a lark/a spree/frolic/wild exuberance/high jinks" So by "Juxmusik" the professor probably intended to convey "high spirited, exuberant, silly music."

Gerald Cohen

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org