Earlier "jinks" = "jinx" (1904-7)

[Douglas G. Wilson]

>... the 1905 example below doesn't seem to contain the usual meaning of
>"hoodoo," "bad luck":  "Well, he certainly has put the jinks on me". The
>meaning here seems to be "He certainly has me stumped."--not quite the
>same thing as being jinxed in its usual sense.

That's right. The 1904 example is a little odd too, as is the 1907 example
which I posted earlier: these ones look like "kibosh" would be more
appropriate than "jinx". Even the 1907 citation which I posted today is a
little bit aberrant: it refers to somebody being dazed or bemused by some
kind of oration, as I read it ... but at the same time it seems to equate
"jinks" with "hoodoo" and "Jonah".

Still I think this is the same word "jinx". Consider the expression "Indian
sign", used in about the same period, synonymous with "jinx" or nearly so.
In HDAS under "Indian sign" there is a quotation from "A. Mutt" which I
think conveys the usual understanding of these things in 1908 (probably
1904-7 wasn't that much different):

<<To have one's goat is to have one buffaloed, or the Indian sign on one's
contemporaries.>>

I read this as "To have X's goat is to have X buffaloed or to have the
Indian sign on X" where "X" denotes some 'contemporary' (i.e., some person
whom one encounters).

To put the jinx or the Indian sign on someone was equivalent in some sense
to getting his goat. I posted a series of "goat" instances a few days ago.
A person carrying a mascot (his "goat") has confidence, luck, composure,
'cool' ... he will win the game. A person laboring under a jinx/hoodoo
lacks these things ... he will lose. Of course one's mascot has to compete
with the jinx projected by the competitor: equivalently, one tries to avoid
being distracted, intimidated, or infuriated -- or hexed/hoodooed -- by the
opponent. At least that's how I see it. If one was not superstitious (and
many were not) then he still recognized the jinx and mascot as
psychological concepts.

In this early period, "jinks"/"jinx" was an uncommon word, *maybe* mostly a
West Coast regionalism (as I stated before, I believe it probably
originated as a clipping of "Jinks Hoodoo" = "Jonah" which is attested from
1891 to 1906). After the word became popularized in the sports pages in
1910, its meaning became more fixed/specific maybe.

-- Doug Wilson