1913 "jazz"; was: Terror Dome; Dallas Morning News (1885-present?)

[George Thompson]

Bill Mullins asks "At what date do citations for "jazz" get
interesting?"

I have been putting together a strictly chronological list of all
passages containing "jazz" and jazz-related words, with an index to the
words.  Ths sources are OED, HDAS, ADS-L, Gerry's articles in Comments,
and whatever I have turned up either by searching Proquest, by browsing
NYC newspapers or by checking the references in the few books on early
jazz that are based on newspaper research rather than oral history,
autobiographies, &c.

Interesting words are:
jasbo (jazbo, jazzbo, jazz bo) before Los Angeles Times, August 17,
1914.  Someone here proposed that "jasbo" was derived from the rustic
first name "Jasper", then became assimilated to "jazz" and the meaning
changed from 'blockhead" to "jazz fiend"  I like this proposal, and
must check the archives to see who offered it.

jazz (jass, jaz, jas) has four basic early meanings
   #1 nonsense, foolishness, low comedy: Los Angeles Times, April 2,
1912  (This is Ben Henderson's "jazz curve" I posted here a year or so
ago; if you want an indisputable
jazz = nonsense, then San Francisco Bulletin, March 3, 1913
   #2 vigor, energy, &c: San Francisco Bulletin, March 6, 1913
   #3 the music: Chicago Daily Tribune, July 11, 1915
   #4 sex: The first indisputable instance is a letter written by John
Dos Passos, November 11, 1918 and published many years later; there are
a few earlier instances when a situation is said to be "jazzed up" and
the words "fucked up" could be substituted, but that was likely not
intended.  A novel published in 1917 is the earliest.  But any instance
before 1921 of a writer declaring "jazz" to be an offensive word or a
vulgarity would be interesting.  There are several statements from the
mid-1920s that the word's original meaning was "fornication", by people
who seemingly might know, but it seems odd that the word was printed in
newspapers in dozens of cities around the country from 1913 and after
without the editors showing any sense that they were laying themselves
open to criticism for using a dirty word.

jazz band: Chicago Herald, May 1, 1916
jazz club: "Spiker 25 Dec. 10/3 1917"  (from the OED: presumably a
limey source -- it would be nice to have an American source)
jazz dance (dancer, dancing); New York Times, March 8, 1917 (dance)
jazz hound (or 1 word): Chicago Daily Tribune, October 12, 1917
jazz man (or 1 word):  Amer. Mercury Apr. 392/1 1926 (from the OED --
probably beatable)
jazz orchestra: Variety, October 27, 1916
jazz record: a letter by Hart Crame, written December 5, 1923, from the
OED -- this should be beatable
jazz singer: Chicago Defender (Nov 4) 1916
jazzer: Washington Post, April 12, 1896, as the name of one of the
speakers in a joke -- it is a real though uncommon name; otherwise
Variety, March 16, 1917, for a person who plays or dotes on jazz
jazzy: Chicago Daily Tribune, July 11, 1915

Naturally, all these combinations might appear as "jass", though it
appears that by the end of 1917 the spelling "jazz" had become
established.

There were a hell of a lot of false positives in Proquest from the late
19th C.  I suspect that the OCR thinks that the name "James" is close
enough for jazz.
By the way, what does Fred know, and when did he know it, about "close
enough for jazz"?

GAT

George A. Thompson
Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern
Univ. Pr., 1998, but nothing much lately.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Mullins, Bill" <Bill.Mullins at US.ARMY.MIL>
Date: Tuesday, September 6, 2005 3:54 pm
Subject: Re: 1913 "jazz"; was: Terror Dome; Dallas Morning News (1885-
present?)

> >
> > Are they all false positives?
>
> Well, the first 10 or so were.  I quit checking then, since such odd
> things were turning up as "jazz":  "the", "Jan.", "ssion" (from
> intermission), "puzzles," etc.  The search for "jazz" returns greater
> than 200 hits when the date is limited 1885 - 1913.
>
> At what date do citations for "jazz" get interesting?  Pre-1917? -
> 1916?-1914?
>
> > Are there any valid 1913
> > attestations?  I'm currently compiling draft #3 about the
> > origin of the term "jazz" (slated for the Oct./Nov. issue of
> > Comments on Etymology), and any attestations from the Dallas
> > Morning News would be of interest.
> >
> > Gerald Cohen
> >
>
> On another note, you might find this interesting:
>
> "Sermon at Grace Church"
> 1905-04-12 Page 11 col 1.
>
> " "I ate hot dog, that you call tamales, for the first time in my
> life,though I hated them and the Greasers who made them, but I was
> glad to
> get the job and made money for my food and for expenses back
> home," he
> continued."
>