English "jitter" from German "zittern"?

[Mullins, Bill AMRDEC]

If WWI were the entry point for "jitters" from German to English, it
seems likely that it might also show up in Canadian and British sources.
I say that because the Toronto Globe and Mail, as well as the Times of
London, both are online.  And maybe some Aussie papers from the era as
well.


> ________________________________
>
> 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 =
> -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: "Cohen, Gerald Leonard"
> Subject: English "jitter" from German "zittern"?
> --------------------------------------------------------------
> -----------=
> ------
>
> 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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