Mexican jumping beans (was Re: Random notes on "The Bizarre notes and queries" 1890 - Google Books)

[Alison Murie]

On Feb 10, 2010, at 1:06 PM, Benjamin Zimmer wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at BABEL.LING.UPENN.EDU>
> Subject:      Mexican jumping beans (was Re: Random notes on "The
> Bizarre notes
>              and queries" 1890 - Google Books)
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Wed, Feb 10, 2010 at 10:49 AM, Mullins, Bill AMRDEC wrote:
>> [Victor Steinbok wrote:]
>>>
>>> I've never heard this particular expression, but, given the time
>>> period
>>> and the description, it seems to have been a reference to the
>>> "Mexican
>>> jumping beans". The latter are antedated in most dictionaries (don't
>>> know what the OED has) to 1885, with some to 1889. There had been
>>> some
>>> question as to the identity of the species of moth involved as
>>> late as
>>> 1891. But it's a trivial matter to find 1885 sources for MJB on GB.
>>
>> OED has "jumping bean" from 1889, but nothing on "Mexican jumping
>> bean"
>> until 1972 (under the entry for "jumping").
>
> And nicely interdating 1885 and 1972 is this 1922 Max Fleischer
> cartoon
> (entitled "Jumping Beans," though a box labeled "Mexican jumping
> beans" is
> visible about a minute in):
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhL2UcDCdHk
>
> IMDb suggests this cartoon originated the "Mexican jumping bean gag":
>
> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0013281/faq#.2.1.1
>
>
> --Ben Zimmer
~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Mexican jumping beans" was, indeed, the name by which we knew these
interesting seeds in the '30s.
AM

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