The name "Jazzer"--Jazzer & Gozlin

[Douglas G. Wilson]

>P.S. Douglas Wilson mentions "Jinks" as being a name on the order of "Jones."
>Actually, though, "Jinks," when used in a humorous item, almost
>certainly has reference to the printer's devil Jinks of the
>mid-nineteenth century poem that Barry Popik unearthed and which
>possibly (this is still controversial) underlies the word "jinx."

I disagree, as I've said here before: in the poem in question (humorous
doggerel) "Jinks" refers not to a printer's devil but to some peripheral
nonentity or unspecified person, as "Jinks" (or "Jones") often does. This
poem was just one earlier example of light use of the arbitrary name
"Jinks" IMHO. I don't think that the occurrence of the name Jinks in a
single obscure poem which also included a printer's devil (= printer's
errand-boy, essentially) was likely to engender a general popular
association of the name Jinks with any sort of devil or errand-boy or
anything else.

Here is Ware (1909) defining the colloquialism "Jinks the Barber",
supposedly dating from 1850: "Secret informant. Idea suggested by the
general barber being such a gossiper. Jinks is a familiar name for an
easy-going man." I can't vouch for the analysis, but I infer that the name
Jinks was probably not globally -- or very widely -- associated either with
printing or with anything diabolical or inauspicious, either in 1850 or in
1909.

Furthermore, of a dozen or more "Jinks et al." jokes in the "Eagle" (on
line), I see no tendency for the character named Jinks to be in any
particular role; nor do I see other characters with names which would
connote anything ominous.

-- Doug Wilson