Jazz, boogie, etc.

David Colburn colburn at PEOPLEPC.COM
Sun Nov 2 08:15:13 UTC 2003


Sam Clements wrote:
>
> 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?
>

It is in HDAS -- see the 1942 Zora Neale Hurston citation in the noun entry.

-David Colburn



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