spaz(z), n.

[Jonathan Lighter]

Yes, "awkward" also figured significantly into it.  If you dropped your fifteen cents (sic) while trying to put it in the vending machine slot you were a "spazz."  Also if you tripped. Also if you tried too hard to get the teacher to call on you in class. (Unbelievable these days, but we actually tried.)  A "spazz" was a combination oaf and idiot. I cannot recall it ever referring to a person having an actual "spastic" disorder, but the etymology was well known.

JL

"Douglas G. Wilson" <douglas at NB.NET> wrote:
---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: "Douglas G. Wilson"
Subject: Re: spaz(z), n.
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> >"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.
>
>Was nominal "spazz" used in the 'uncoordinated' sense (i.e., for someone
>who frequently "spazzed out"), or in the 'uncool' sense of the 1965 cites?
> I realize there may have been a subtle gradation from one sense to the
>other.

As I recall from the early 1960's, "spastic" was used for "uncoordinated
person" ... obviously based on "spastic" = "person afflicted with a spastic
[neurologic] disorder". "Spaz[z]" was used as an alternative to "spastic"
[n.] and I think it was understood to be some sort of an abbreviation for
"spastic". At that time I don't recall "spastic" or "spaz[z]" applied to
those who were nerdy or unfashionably dressed but rather to those who were
awkward, poorly coordinated physically, poor at sports ... or, indeed, to
those who had neurological disorders. "Spaz[z]" in the more general
"uncool" sense I remember only from much later (maybe 1980's) (although
apparently it was around by 1965, unsurprisingly).

-- Doug Wilson


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