Etymology of "Ska"

[Wilson Gray]

On Jun 10, 2005, at 7:39 AM, Fred Shapiro wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Fred Shapiro <fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Etymology of "Ska"
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>
> The OED's first citation is Sept. 1964.  The following provides earlier
> evidence as well as an explanation of the etymology:
>
> "The 'Ska' hits London --but they call it Blue Beat ... Towards the
> end of
> the fifties the Jamaicans got keen on rhythm and blues, particularly a
> record called 'No More Doggin' sung by Roscoe Gordon.

The name is actually _Rosco_ Gordon, without a final "e." No More
Doggin' was released in 1952. However, according to the All Music
Guide, this record was not released in Jamaica till 1959.

>   They got hold of
> this beat, cheered it up a bit, added some cute lyrics and called it
> Ska
> -- an onomatopoeic word for the sound the guitar made.

Further according to the AMG, "[S]ka ... took its name [from] the sound
of this particular [piano] shuffle, [called 'Rosco's Rhythm'], as it
sounded being played on an electric guitar (ska-ska-ska)."

-Wilson Gray

>   From 1959 onwards
> this was all the rage.  We called it Blue Beat here [London, England]
> because of the label it was issued on."
>         Article by Maureen Cleave, Daily Gleaner (Kingston, Jamaica),
> 17
> Mar. 1964, page 7
>
> Fred Shapiro
>
>
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> Fred R. Shapiro                             Editor
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> QUOTATIONS
>   Access and Lecturer in Legal Research     Yale University Press,
> Yale Law School                             forthcoming
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