"Jay walker" etc.: etymology

Sun Feb 8 04:44:19 UTC 2009

Maybe "jaywalker" becomes less opaque etymologically when taken in context.

I find the following comparable terms:

"jay rider" [referring to a cyclist] from 1891 (probably)
"jay driver" [usually referring to animal-drawn vehicles and to
automobiles] from 1908 ("jay driving" from 1906)
"jay walker" from 1911
"jay stander" from 1912 (maybe nonce)
"jay pedestrian" from 1914
"jay rider" [referring to an auto occupant] from 1920
"jay cyclist" from 1937

I believe it is highly probable that "jay walker" was consciously
modeled on pre-existing "jay driver".

As for the "jay", it seems likely that it was indeed "jay" =
"hick[ish]"/"fool[ish]" as has been speculated previously. At least this
seems to have been the usual perception back in the day.

"Jayhawk[er]" was (and is) used for "Kansan" and "jayhawker" once was
used about the same as "hick" (in HDAS). Maybe "jayhawker" is the
ancestor of "jay"? Is it significant that "jay walker" was said to have
been a Kansas City coinage?

Here are a few early quotations from Newspaperarchive:

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{_Decatur [IL] Daily Republican_, 24 Aug. 1891: p. '4': <<Frank Dodd's
fine Ormonde wheel was wrecked, as were also several others by a jay
rider causing a collision on the track.>>}

[Note that the exact meaning of "jay rider" cannot be established with
absolute certainty here!]

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_Ogden [UT] Standard_, 18 Apr. 1906: p. 7: <<Against "Jay" Driving. /
The city attorney prepared and submitted an ordinance which provides
that teams and vehicles, including automobiles, keep on the right-hand
side of the street when they travel farther than a half block and
providing further that they shall not pass crossings at a speed faster
than a walk.>>

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_Emporia [KS] Gazette_, 17 July 1908: p. 1: <<Apparently most of the
vehicles on South Commercial street during the rush to or from the
Chautauqua are occupied by jay drivers. In the jam of buggies,
carriages, carryalls and autos which occasionally clog portions of the
street, it is a noticeable fact that most of the vehicles are on the
wrong side of the road. ... many needless delays and perhaps a serious
accident can be caused by jay driving.>>

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_Emporia [KS] Gazette_, 22 June 1909: p. 1: <<The ordinance establishes
rules which, if enforced, will do away with jay driving. It requires all
vehicles to keep to the right ....>>

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_Washington [DC] Post_, 7 May 1911: p. '38': [from "Kansas City Star"]
<<New York Faker's Paradise [title] / METROPOLIS FULL OF RUBES WHO WILL
FALL FOR ANY KIND OF SKIN GAME / Gay New York or Jay New York -- it is
spelled both ways and either is correct. / Some contemporary was kind
enough to save the rest of us the trouble of saying that Manhattan had
more rubes per capita than the state of Iowa. All this that follows is
in the nature of evidence and exhibits to show the statement to be true.
/ .... / Kansas City used to consider itself a town of jay walkers. That
is another line in Which New York deserves the discredit of being at the
front of the procession. A typical Manhattan ... has never heard of the
prehistoric principle of keeping to the right -- he ambles all over the
sidewalk.>>

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_ Emporia [KS] Gazette_, 13 July 1911: p. '6': <<A jay driver is a
species of the human race who, when driving either a horse or an
automobile, or riding a bicycle on the streets, does not observe the
rules of the road. It is the custom of the jay driver to drive on the
wrong side of the street ....>>

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_Lincoln [NE] Evening News_, 29 July 1911: p. 4: <<Kansas City
motorists, who have been held up to scorn for years on account of "jay"
driving have turned. Now they are after the "jay" walker. They point out
that the rules of the road are observed by few pedestrians ....>>

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_Emporia [KS] Daily Gazette_, 15 Sep. 1911: p. 8: <<An Emporia man ...
said: "There is as much jay walking as jay driving. ....">>

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_Stevens Point [WI] Daily Journal_, 26 Aug. 1912: p. '2': <<What is a
jay walker? We all know him and recognize him as a pest, but Kansas City
was first in giving him a name .... The jay walker is the person who
walks or loiters in crowded streets, totally indifferent to the rights
and convenience of those he comes in contact with there. In crossing
from one sidewalk to another he ignores the cross-walks and meanders
among wagons, traction cars and automobiles .... On a crowded sidewalk
he keeps to the left instead of to the right .... He stops to talk with
acquaintances on busy corners ....>>

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_Piqua [OH] Daily Call_, 7 Dec. 1912: p. 4: <<Out west ... they have
what even the municipal and higher courts term "jay walkers" and "jay
drivers" -- that is people who habitually walk or drive contrary to the
usual custom of keeping to the right, and people who go on foot or in
vehicles in the wrong direction, cut across the street diagonally, or
where there is no regular crossing, receive scant consideration in the
event of their injury. / .... / Keep to the right. / .... / But even
more provoking than the "jay walkers" are the "jay standers" -- those
who halt in the middle of the sidewalk or in store door entrances to
talk with casually met friends.>>

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_Janesville [WI] Daily Gazette_, 9 Jan. 1913: p. 9: <<It appears that
the "jay walker" is a walker who cuts across corners and goes across the
street anywhere and at any angle, instead of making use of the crossing.>>

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_Newark [OH] Daily Advocate_, 17 Aug. 1914: p. 4: <<The fool driver is
responsible for a part of the automobile accidents, the "jay" pedestrian
for the others.>>

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_Oakland [CA] Tribune_, 5 Sep. 1920: p. 1920: p. 2-O: <<Motorist Finds
Pretty Girls Are "Rube Walkers" / Phillip S. Cole sent out a new Haynes
car the other day to find out how many "pedestrian nuts" we have close
by. .... One of them is the pretty girl who steps from behind a mass of
parked machines in the middle of the block and saunters across the
street without a care on earth .... / .... The coming generation may not
be "jay walkers," but that remains to be seen.>>

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_Cedar Rapids [IA] Evening Gazette_, 1 Apr. 1921: p. 11: <<Jaywalkers
and hick drivers will have to watch their step in the loop district
during the rush hours of each day beginning tomorrow.>>

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-- Doug Wilson

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