[Ads-l] "(jump) salty"

Tue Jan 20 12:24:41 UTC 2015

Ranch hands spoke of "salty broncs" (i.e., spirited) somewhat earlier than
1935, IIRC.

JL

On Tue, Jan 20, 2015 at 12:46 AM, ADSGarson O'Toole <
adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: "(jump) salty"
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Ben, the Newspapers.com database has quite a few matches for "jump
> salty" that look legitimate in "The New York Age". The list of dates
> below stops at 1937. I apologize for not including text. The database
> does not supply extracted text. You have to generate it yourself via
> OCR or retype from the image.
>
> The New York Age
> New York, New York
>
> jump salty (some matches are actually "jumps salty")
>
> Saturday, August 31, 1935 - Page 7
> Saturday, December 12, 1936 - Page 12
> Saturday, June 26, 1937 - Page 7
> Saturday, October 16, 1937 - Page 7
> Saturday, October 30, 1937 - Page 7
> Saturday, November 20, 1937 - Page 7
>
> jumped salty
>
> Saturday, February 22, 1936 - Page 9
> Saturday, May 9, 1936 - Page 4
> Saturday, June 13, 1936 - Page 10
> Saturday, March 20, 1937 - Page 7
> Saturday, March 27, 1937 - Page 12
> Saturday, December 11, 1937 - Page 2
> Saturday, December 18, 1937 - Page 7
>
> jumping salty
>
> Saturday, August 21, 1937 - Page 4
>
> Garson
>
> On Mon, Jan 19, 2015 at 10:57 PM, Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at gmail.com> wrote:
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at GMAIL.COM>
> > Subject:      Re: "(jump) salty"
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > On Mon, Jan 19, 2015 at 8:16 PM, Laurence Horn wrote:
> >>
> >> Sorry if I missed it upthread, but the OED's entry for "(jump) salty" at
> >> sense 5 begins with these two cites from 1938; I love the nifty verbing
> >> of "Reno" in the latter:
> >>
> >> 1938   Amer. Speech 13 314/1   Jump salty, implies an unexpected change
> >> in a person's attitude or knowledge. The person may become suddenly
> >> angry, or an unhipped person may become hipped.
> >> 1938   N.Y. Amsterdam News 26 Feb. 17/2   Let's sound a high C on the
> >> postoffice man whose Girl Friday is "jumpin' salty" 'cause he won't
> >> Reno the wife who thinks but isn't sure.
> >>
> >> Although these are both under the same general entry, I'll have to take
> >> the OED's word for it that this clearly AAE usage is derived from the
> >> "piquant, racy" one at sense 3 that Garson mentions below.  I always
> >> associated "salty language", perhaps wrongly, with usage by foul-mouthed
> >> sailors (more specifically, navy men).
> >
> > I don't think OED's historical sense-ordering for "salty" necessarily
> > implies that the AAE usage at sense 5 is directly derived from
> > "piquant, racy" at sense 3. The entry's dealing with several
> > intertwined senses, and it doesn't seem like there's a nice linear
> > semantic progression going on here. I agree that "salty language" ties
> > in with nautical "salty" (which I mentioned as a pre-existing use of
> > the term in my WSJ piece).
> >
> > For the sake of completeness, here are all of the "jump salty" cites
> > I've found in the Philadelphia Tribune from 1935-36. Only two of them
> > have bylines, and they're both by sports columnist Ed Harris (the
> > expression was favored on the sports pages early on). A few others
> > appear in a cryptic "blind item" column called "Centreville Flash."
> > (Centreville/Centerville was a predominantly black neighborhood in
> > Camden, NJ.)
> >
> > 1935 _Philadelphia Tribune_ 18 July 11/1 Ed Harris, "Mike Jacobs
> Diplomat"
> > Now as far as France and Italy were concerned, Hitler was jumping
> > salty, spreading that jive.
> > 1935 _Philadelphia Tribune_ 31 Oct 17/7 "Centreville Flash"
> > Who are, were the boys of Centreville younger set, that took A.W.F.C.
> > and E.C., out for a car ride, and the Chicks jump salty. Be careful
> > boys.
> > 1935 _Philadelphia Tribune_ 14 Nov 12/5 "The Looking Glass"
> > He promises to do better this week and not jump salty again until
> > Cheyney plays Bordentown. Maybe.
> > 1935 _Philadelphia Tribune_ 5 Dec 6/8 "Centreville Flash"
> > I would like to know how does D.S. feel now since his dearie has
> > jumped salty. Can you take it, kid?
> > 1936 _Philadelphia Tribune_ 9 Jan 17/2 "Centerville Flash"
> > I wonder why L.T. jumped salty and put a Joe Louis on [illegible].D.?
> > 1936 _Philadelphia Tribune_ 13 Feb 12/1 Ed R. Harris, "Behind the News"
> > And he's getting madder and madder 'cause the chick is jumping far too
> > salty for Abe and he don't want none of that stuff.
> > 1936 _Philadelphia Tribune_ 2 Apr 12/8 "Satchell to Come East"
> > The fans are still trying to figure whether Satchell jumped salty or
> > whether the promoters tried to put something over on the public.
> > 1936 _Philadelphia Tribune_ 1 Oct 14/7 "Around the Town with Tony"
> > Dixon's Wonder Bar is still jumping and I don't mean salty either, for
> > the entertainment under the direction of George Dorsey and Dixie
> > Johnson.
> >
> > The earliest example in HDAS and GDoS is from Roi Ottley's "Hectic
> > Harlem" column in the Feb. 8, 1936 New York Amsterdam News. Ottley
> > glosses "salty" as "sarcastic, supercilious, highbrow, as 'Don't jump
> > salty.'" In that same issue, there's an article that uses "salty"
> > several times.
> >
> > 1936 _New York Amsterdam News_ 8 Feb 1/7 "Bootsie, You Should've Seen
> > It! Them 'Walk Together' Cats Were Sure Salty"
> > Soon after the first curtain went up, Bootsie, some of them Apollo
> > cats in the balcony jumped salty and started clapping at the wrong
> > places. These amateur night gigolos were quieted down when the play
> > got going, however, 'cause them Georgia cats on the stage were salty
> > cats that was salty.
> > Strike me pink, Bootsie, them down home cats in "Walk Together
> > Chillun" was a blip. They didn't believe nothing or nobody. They'd
> > jump salty at the drop of a hat. And you could've knocked me over with
> > a reefer, Bootsie, when these same salty cats grabbed their bandannas
> > in the last act and tore out for the church as soon as the white folks
> > got their dander up.
> >
> > --bgz
> >
> > --
> > Ben Zimmer
> > http://benzimmer.com/
> >
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> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
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