"Jazz" did not have a sexual origin

[Gerald Cohen]

    Jesse Sheidlower today considered the possibility of the word
"jazz" having a sexual origin:

>Some of the examples that were pitched to me are either of
>uncertain etymology ("jazz," perhaps of sexual origin though perhaps
>not;

     The supposition that "jazz" has a sexual origin is almost
certainly incorrect. In 1913, _S.F. Bulletin_, "jazz" was
specifically discussed as a new word. It was introduced by baseball
writer Scoop Gleeson and then used repeatedly by him in the meaning
of "energy, vim, vigor, fighting spirit." (The term was only later
applied to music). There seems to be no chance at all--none,
zero--that "jazz" could have had a sexual meaning prior to 1913
without the worldly wise sports writers of the San Francisco Bulletin
knowing about it.
Gleeson himself later reported that he acquired the term "jazz" from
the sports editor of _The Call_, Spike Slattery, who had recently
heard the crapshooting incantation "Come on,the old jazz."  This
"jazz" probably derives from a term "jasm" (= force), and the
incantation probably meant: "May the force be with me."

      BTW, the 1909 attestation of "jazz" in OED2 has been
demonstrated to be an error and should be set aside. The starting
date for "jazz" in print is 1913.

---Gerald Cohen

P.S. On other matters, thanx for the responses to my query "out in left field."