Jazz, boogie, etc.

Sam Clements sclements at NEO.RR.COM
Sun Nov 2 07:25:57 UTC 2003


An article over at the Straight Dope brought up a site
http://64.33.34.112/.WWW/etymol.html
which says that 'boogie-woogie' was used by Southern blacks in the 19th
century to mean "secondary syphilis."

I can't find this meaning in the OED, nor in RHDAS.  Is it in DARE?  Where
do they get this idea?

They also speculate on the origins of Jazz.  etc.



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