"Jaser"/"jazer" = "copulate"? (> "jazz"?)

[Douglas G. Wilson]

In connection with the etymology of the word "jazz" (music), some writers
suggest an origin in French, namely "jaser"/"jazer" = "copulate". Is this
word with this meaning familiar to anyone on this list? If not, could
someone refer this inquiry to an authority on French, or suggest a
consultant? A few French correspondents have been unable to help.

The French dictionaries (I checked several big multivolume ones) show
"jaser"/"jazer" (old but still current) meaning something like "babble",
"blab", "give away a secret", "badmouth", "make a sound like a bird". The
argot dictionaries also show "jaser" = "prier", = "pray" (as I understand
it) (I've found this as early as 1886).

The only "jaser" = "copulate" reference I can find is in Farmer's "Vocabula
Amatoria" (1896): perhaps all of the writers on "jaser" > "jazz" may be
working from this single source. The only example given here is:

        Tu as les genoux chauds, tu veux jaser. -- "La Comédie des proverbes"

I suppose this may be some sort of satire on something like:

        Vous jasez bien à votre aise, vous avez les pieds chauds.

(something like "It's easy for YOU to mouth off, you're comfortable" -- as
I understand it.) I don't understand the sense of the "genoux chauds"
example, and I don't see the sexual reference. Does "hot knees" have an
erotic meaning? (I suppose "avoir les pieds chauds" referred originally to
the comfort of a warm house, perhaps one's feet up in front of the fire?)

I don't know whether it's relevant but Farmer's book also shows "prier" =
"copulate", with an example:

        Vois du taureau la fougue et la vigueur: a la génisse il vole ... autre
prière -- prions comme eux. -- Parny

Is this a reference to postures assumed by cattle during mating, or what?

Review of French-language Web sites -- including those addressing the
etymology of "jazz" and mentioning "jaser" -- does not provide me with any
indication that "jaser"/"jazer" is understandable as "copulate" to the
French in general. There remains the possibility of such a usage in New
Orleans Creole or some other French variant (although this might not
account for Farmer's entry).

[BTW, I tentatively agree with Gerald Cohen that "jazz" probably was not
proximately derived from an explicitly sexual word, either "jaser" or any
other one.]

-- Doug Wilson