"jazz" (in Paris) 1908 is unlikely

[Gerald Cohen]

    Of course, all leads for a pre-1913 attestation of musical "jazz"
must be checked out. But I cannot help feeling skeptical about a
supposed attestation turning up in a 1908 Paris newspaper while the
newspapers of America (where the term originated) do not mention
musical "jazz" for at least another five or six years. (Set aside
OED2's 1909 "jazz" as an error).

---Gerald Cohen

>
>Date:         Sun, 29 Apr 2001 09:55
>From: "Douglas G. Wilson" <douglas at NB.NET>
>Subject:      Re: jazz
>To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>
>>From Jan Ivarsson:
>
>>Grand Larousse Dictionnaire de la Langue Francaise (1975) under "jazz"
>>also gives the date 1908 and as a reference cites Dietrich Behrens, Ueber
>>englisches Sprachgut im Französischen (1927).
>
>I have consulted the Behrens book. The citation (p. 60) reads:
>
><<jazzband Musikkapelle (amerik.) Matin 8.10.1908: .. les _jazband_ des
>fusiliers marins donnent un concert (Scherer).>>
>
>"Scherer" apparently is a reference to M. Scherer, "Englisches Sprachgut in
>der französischen Tagespresse der Gegenwart", _Giessener Beiträge zur
>Romanischen Philologie_, Heft XI (Otto Meyer, Giessen, 1923). I can't find
>this book immediately.
>
>But the citation presumably refers to the Paris newspaper "Matin"?
>Presumably 8 October 1908? I don't have immediate access to this.
>
>Can any of the scholars take this further? If someone will send me a copy
>of the appropriate issue of "Matin", I will be glad to look through it. (^_^)
>
>-- Doug Wilson