English "jitter" from German "zittern"?

Sun Dec 24 01:51:58 UTC 2006

    My thanks again to Jonathan--this time for his second message (below) on "jitter."  The March 22, 1929 attestation might be important, since it provides a specific early context for "jitters," namely the drinking of (too much) liquor.  If the 1929 Sturges quote also involves liquor (and this remains to be checked), the jitters might originally have referred to the d.t.'s.  Would anyone know of articles on drinking-terminology from the 1920's?

     As for the 15,000 APS hits between 1705 and 1922, I'm amazed that the technology can't differentiate between words like "history" and "jitters."

Gerald Cohen

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From: American Dialect Society on behalf of Jonathan Lighter
Sent: Sat 12/23/2006 5:57 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: English "jitter" from German "zittern"?

Jerry, I just checked America's Historical Newspapers for jitter/ jitters/ jittery and got over 15,000 hits between about 1705 and 1922.  The few I checked (from 1922 when coverage ends) were quite false ("history," "Jeffery," etc.) so if there's any signal in that noise it will probably remain undetected.

  APS reveals the following, which is probably a slight antedating of Sturges:

  1929 _Life_ (Mar. 22) 28: A couple of sessions with the spirits which will give you the chattering jitters.

  No quotes around "jitters," FWIW.

  Earlier APS hits that I checked were either bogus or too hard to find at the moment.

  JL

"Cohen, Gerald Leonard" <gcohen at UMR.EDU> wrote:
  ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: "Cohen, Gerald Leonard"
Subject: Re: English "jitter" from German "zittern"?
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My thanks to Jonathan for his reply below. I guess the main question now =
is what occurred about 1929-1930 to propel "jitter" into the standard =
language. Jitteriness/trembling can have many causes, of which wartime =
fighting is only one. Would any of the databases have an antedating of =
"jitter"? It would be good to zero in on the context of the earliest =
attestations, if such clarificaiton is in fact possible. Meanwhile, I'll =
check the 1929 Sturges play to see if there's anything about Isabelle =
(or the playwright Sturges) that sheds light on the term.
=20
Gerald Cohen

________________________________

From: American Dialect Society on behalf of Jonathan Lighter
Sent: Sat 12/23/2006 3:34 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: English "jitter" from German "zittern"?

Whatever its origin, my experience is that "jitters" suddenly became =
widely current in U.S. English from about 1930.

This is notable because no American writings about World War I =
published before that date seem to include term. Had it been current as =
recently as 1918, one would expect to find many printed examples.

The possibility that the word actually entered English in an =
untraceable way during the first World War, especially its latter =
phaseswhen thousands upon thousands of German POWs were interrogated =
after enduring extended artillery fire, should not be dismissed.

The theory would be even more attractive if a nominal form of =
_zittern_ (?_die Zittern_) was widely current in the _Landwehr_ during =
WWI.

If there was, I'd be strongly inclined to say, "Case closed."

JL

"Cohen, Gerald Leonard" wrote:
---------------------- Information from the mail header =
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Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: "Cohen, Gerald Leonard"
Subject: English "jitter" from German "zittern"?
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In the Oct./Nov. 2006 issue of Comments on Etymology (series of working =
papers received by various libraries, scholars, lexicographers, =
word-buffs) I presented the tentative suggestion of my student, Daniel =
Gill, that English "jitter" might derive from German "zittern." =
Specifically, he asked me once if there's any connection between the two =
words, and with a bit of checking I told him the origin of the term is =
unclear and he might have hit upon the solution. I wrote up the material =
and presented it as a co-authored item (Gill & Cohen).

I will now run the brief item by ads-l with the questions: Does Mr. =
Gill's suggestion seem plausible? Is there any information that he and I =
may have overlooked, either in favor of the German derivation of =
"jitter" or in opposition to it? I've reproduced the Comments on =
Etymology item below my signoff, and any feedback would be very welcome.

Gerald Cohen

[from Comments on Etymology, Oct./Nov. 2006, p. 48; title: "English =
'Jitter' from German 'Zittern'?"]:

OED2 says of jitter 'Origin unknown' and gives 1929 as the date of the =
first attestation:

P. STURGES Strictly Dishonorable II. 123 Isabelle. Willie's got the =
jitters--- Judge. Jitters? Isabelle. You know, he makes faces all the =
time.

Meanwhile, Barnhart 1988 says: jitters, n. pl. Informal. Extreme =
nervousness. 1929, American English, in Preston Sturges' play Strictly =
Dishonorable; perhaps developed as an alteration of dialectal English =
chitter, v. and n., tremble or shiver, from Middle English chitieren to =
twitter, chatter (probably before 1200, in Ancrene Riwle); usually =
considered of imitative origin.

1929 is late for the first attestation of a term in English, and while =
dialectal influence cannot be ruled out, the possibility of borrowing =
may turn out to be more attractive. In this regard, UMR student Daniel =
Gill drew my attention to German zittern 'to tremble' Initial /ts/ is =
foreign to English and would expectedly be changed to something similar; =
jitter is a plausible phonetic result, and of course the semantics jibe.

REFERENCES

Barnhart, Robert K. 1988. The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology. NY: =
Wilson.

Liberman, Anatoly 2005. Word Origins. Oxford U. Press. --- p. 38: 'It is =
amazing how often j (the sound, not the letter) occurs in words of =
obscure origin in which it contributes to the feeling that we have =
colloquialisms, if not exactly slang. Consider budge, grudge, drudge, =
fudge,...trudge, nudge, fidget; jab, job, jam (verb), jerk, jib, jinks, =
jitter, jog, jolt, and jumble. And this is not a complete list.'

OED2 =3D Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition.

Pfeffer, J. Alan and Garland Cannon 1994. German Loanwords in English: =
An Historical Dictionary. Cambridge U. Pr. --- no mention of jitter =
possibly deriving from German zittern.

# # #

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