spaz(z), n.

[Jonathan Lighter]

I don't recall any "Spazz" among the Dead End Kids, Bowery Boys, or East Side Kids, and a Boolean search of Google (with both "spazz" and "spaz") came up empty.

JL

Your Name <sclements at NEO.RR.COM> wrote:
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Sender: American Dialect Society
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Subject: Re: spaz(z), n.
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I'm not at my home computer, so can't call up older messages, but I
wonder if anyone has brought up those wonderful movies of the 30's-
40's with the Dead End Kids and The Bowery Boys? I seem to remember a
kid named "Spaz." I can't remember now if he WAS a spaz, but I'm sure
others can track this down.

Sam Clements

----- Original Message -----
From: Benjamin Zimmer
Date: Saturday, June 25, 2005 2:24 pm
Subject: Re: spaz(z), n.

> On Thu, 23 Jun 2005 19:57:28 -0700, Jonathan Lighter
> wrote:
>
> >"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.
>
> I posted the Russell Baker quote on the alt.usage.english
> newsgroup, and
> it elicited this response from Joe Fineman (Caltech class of '58):
>
> -----
> http://groups-
> beta.google.com/group/alt.usage.english/msg/bded7888abdc8c8c
> Here, FWIW, is the entry in my journal (1956) from a section on the
> language of Caltech students:
>
> SPAZ, n.R (shortened from _spastic_) 1. _Obsolete._ A person
> lacking in the common social skills & virtues. See TWITCH. 2.
> To surprise a person in a way that causes him to take some time to
> react. v.R
>
> The "R" means "regional or national" -- i.e., I was aware at the time
> that this was not just Caltech slang. The noun was, of course,
> obsolete only at Caltech, where it had been replaced by the allusive
> "twitch".
> -----
>
> Thank goodness for college kids keeping slang journals! It's
> fascinatingthat "spaz" was already considered obsolete as early as
> 1956 at Caltech.
> Might this suggest a West Coast origin (or at least early
> popularization)?While Manhattanites were picking up "spaz", the
> Caltechies had already
> moved on to "twitch". Any other college reminiscences?
>
>
> --Ben Zimmer
>


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