spaz(z), n.

[Jonathan Lighter]

"Spazz," n. & v., were both in daily use on the West Side of Manhattan in the fall of 1959. At least among us kids.  I remember because I'd never heard them before. The same was true of
"retard," n.

JL

Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at RCI.RUTGERS.EDU> wrote:
---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Benjamin Zimmer
Subject: spaz(z), n.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

OED recently added a draft entry for the verb "spaz", with a surprisingly
early first cite (via Newspaperarchive, of course):

-----
spaz, v.
slang (orig. U.S.). Often considered offensive. [< SPAZ n.]
intr. To lose physical or emotional control, usually as the result of an
intense emotional experience; to act in a bizarre or uncharacteristic way.
Freq. with _out_. Also in extended use.

1957 Hammond (Indiana) Times 6 Nov. B2/6 Jewelers, furriers, and furniture
dealers go through similar merchandising tortures whenever Wall Street
spazzes. [...]
-----

So if the verb derives from the noun, where are the earlier nominal
usages? The OED entry for nominal "spaz" has yet to be updated, so this is
currently the first cite:

-----
1965 P. KAEL I lost it at Movies III. 259 The term that American
teen-agers now use as the opposite of 'tough' is 'spaz'. A spaz is a
person who is courteous to teachers, plans for a career..and believes in
official values. A spaz is something like what adults still call a square.
-----

>From the same year, I find:

-----
1965 R. BAKER in _N.Y. Times_ 11 Apr. E14/6 Your teen-age daughter asks
what you think of her "shades," which you are canny enough to know are her
sunglasses, and you say, "Cool," and she says, "Oh, Dad, what a spaz!"
(Translation: "You're strictly from 23-skidoo.")
-----

So by 1965 "spaz" had come to mean someone uncool (note that Russell
Baker's daughter considered him uncool because he used "cool", dated slang
before its '70s revival). Presumably in the '50s and early '60s, the more
"spastic" sense of "spaz" was floating around but was deemed unfit for
print. Burchfield includes this note in the OED2 entry for "spastic"
meaning "one who is uncoordinated or incompetent; a fool" (first cite
1981): "Although current for some fifteen years or more, it is generally
condemned as a tasteless expression, and is not common in print."

So what is the earliest occurrence of uncoordinated "spaz" (as opposed to
uncool "spaz")? As a starting point, there is the undeniably tasteless
garage-rock single "Spazz" by the Elastik Band (Atco #6537, Nov. 1967),
included in the box set _Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First
Psychedelic Era 1965-1968_. The single is described here:

http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:wvk9kebtjq7z~T1
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=33:ni2m968oher3

Lyrics include: "I said, get offa the floor, get offa the floor, boy,
people gonna think, yes they're gonna think, people gonna think you're a
spazz."

This is also the earliest example I know of for the double-z spelling of
"spazz". Any antedatings?


--Ben Zimmer


---------------------------------
Yahoo! Mail
 Stay connected, organized, and protected. Take the tour