jinx

[Gerald Cohen]

    A few thoughts on "jinx":

1) Barry Popik and I co-authored the following item: "Onomastic
origin of _jinx_," _Comments on Etymology_, vol. 31, no. 1, Oct.
2001, pp. 2-12.

2) Barry unearthed the journalistic poem "More Copy" in _The Daily
Press_, Victoria, B. C., 3 May 1861, p. 1, col. 1. The introduction
to the poem mentions that it is reprinted from _The Printer_ but does
not give the exact reference.  That reference turns out to be: _The
Printer_, Sept. 1859, vol. 2, no. 5, p. 106, cols. 2-3. _The Printer_
was a monthly newspaper (1858-1875?) devoted to the arts and
published in NYC. And the poem is modeled on Poe's "The Raven."

3) Throughout most of the poem, Jinx is knocking at the door of his
fellow journalist, saying the foreman wants more copy. But there were
no more stories to be had. The request to produce more copy was not
only unreasonable but was quickly taking on nightmarish proportions
for the journalist. When the journalist, worked up to a fever pitch,
finally does open his door, he hallucinates that Jinx is
transmogrified into a bona fide devil; i.e., Jinx is no longer merely
his nebbishy, everyday self but is now an outright,tormenting devil:
"...we opened wide the door.
But phancey, now, our pheelinks,
For it wasn't Jinks, the bore--
Jinks, nameless evermore.

"But the form that stood before us,
Caused a trembling to come o'er us,
And mem'ry quickly bore us
Back to days of yore,
Days when 'items' were in plenty,
And where'er this writer went he
Picked up interesting items by the score.
'Twas the form of our "devil,"
In an attitude uncivil;
And he thrust his head within the open door,
With 'The foreman's _out of copy!_ sir--and says he wants some more!'
Yes, like Alexander, wanted "more!
...And our devil, never sitting,
Still is flitting, still is flitting
Back and forth upon the landing just outside the sanctum door.
Tears adown his cheeks are streaming--
Strange light from his eyes is beaming--
And his voice is heard, still screaming,
'Sir, the foreman wants some more!"
And our soul, pierced with the screaming,
Is awakened from its dreaming.
..."

4) I omitted one very important detail in the "Jinx" article
(actually: working paper), because I simply took it for granted: The
1910-1911 baseball cartoons portraying a jinx show him in varying
ugly forms to be a devil. It is this devil who is responsible for the
bad luck suffered by teams or individual players.
The devil in the 1859 journalistic poem evidently survived in the
minds of journalists throughout the century and emerged big time in a
journalistic context in the writings and drawings of the 1910-1911
baseball writers/cartoonists.

5) I still have Barry's 1910-1911 "jinx" material; I would like to
collect more relevant material and then present it all as a follow-up
to our Oct. 2001 item (revised from our 1998 treatment). The
1910-1911 material is important, but only for popularizing the term,
not originating it.  The Rosetta Stone to the term's etymology
remains the 1859 poem that Barry spotted.

Gerald Cohen


(ads-l message from Barry Popik, Aug. 6, 2002)

>JINX--I didn't know if Gerald Cohen was going to post about this.  "Jinx"
>brings back painful memories.  I posted my "jinx" information on ADS-L five
>years ago, after my mother died on Friday, June 13, 1997.
>    "Jynx" is not coming back.  It would be a theory, perhaps, if someone
>presented a single pre-1920 citation with "jynx."  The usage gap is just too
>large.
>    "Jinx" was used most often in baseball.  I clearly showed that the term
>became popular in 1911, and sports cartoonists (COE didn't use most of this)
>were changing from "jinks" to "jinx."  I also found a citation for the
>fictitious name "Calamatiy W. Jinx," in the humor magazine PUCK in the 1880s.
>    "Captain Jinks of the Horse Marines" was a play in the early 1900s.  The
>song was especially popular with the men who played baseball.  There's no
>doubt in my mind that "jinx" comes from "jinks" comes from "Captain Jinks,
>the curse of the army."
>    Beyond "Captain Jinks" is really anyone's guess.  I  found that 1850s
>"jinks" poem.  Charles Dickens also had a "Jinks" character.  We're going
>several generations from "jinx," and it's really to far to speculate.
>Probably, the "Captain Jinks" author has "high jinks" in mind when he wrote
>the song.


*********
>At 9:29 AM -0700 7/30/02, Dave Wilton wrote:
>>  It was the "devil" (printer's, and maybe other too), but
>  >
>>  ** IT WASN'T JINKS. **
>>
>>  The name "Jinks" never appears again after the line with "nameless
>>  evermore"; as for the "devil" at the door, "IT WASN'T JINKS".
>>
>>  *** JINKS WAS NOT GIVEN AS THE NAME OF THE "DEVIL" IN THE
>>  POEM! JINKS WAS
>>  SOMEBODY ELSE ENTIRELY! ***
>
>Or the protaganist is hallucinating. He talks of how "memory quickly bore
>us/Back again to days of yore'" and of the printer's devil asking for copy.
>His use of "devil" is not a reference to Satan appearing, but rather in his
>mind Jinks has been transformed into an imp who "still is flitting" about
>and continually asking for more copy. He picks up a cudgel and chases
>Jinks/devil back to "his office."
>
>Still this all a bit tangential to the origin of the modern sense of "jinx."
>No one has antedated that sense earlier than the 1910-11 baseball usages.
>What we have here is a character named "Jinks" who is associated with vexing
>behavior and persistant bad luck (at not finding a story). What the poet was
>literally describing is not important to the original question, the
>association is sufficient to indicate that the modern usage of "jinx" may
>be/is likely (take your pick) from the proper name, used in this poem and
>other sources.