Antedating "the yips" OED 1963-->1943 :: Fwd: "yips" - Word of the Day from the OED

[Jonathan Lighter]

FWIW, I've encountered this expression only in golfing contexts or in
writings by self-confessed golfers.

Unlike the willies, the jumps, the heebie jeebies, the screaming meemies,
etc.

JL

On Fri, Oct 1, 2010 at 11:49 PM, Victor Steinbok <aardvark66 at gmail.com>wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Victor Steinbok <aardvark66 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Antedating "the yips" OED 1963-->1943 :: Fwd: "yips" -
> Word
>              of the Day from the OED
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>  Many thanks to Garson for completing this thread. I left it hanging by
> not following up with periodicals and he dutifully explored that option,
> coming up with some nice quotations.
>
> It seems rather definitive from all this that even if Tommy Armour did
> not originate the expression, he certainly was a focal point for it, at
> least in golf. The expression may or may not have existed separately
> from golf, but it would not be surprising if other golfers picked it up
> from Armour. Not only Sneed, but also Bobby Jones, in his golfing
> biography, used the expression. I believe, Jones's book was listed by GB
> under 1960.
>
> OK, here it is:
>
> http://bit.ly/aF00yh
> > It is a manner of freezing and is well known to tournament players as
> > a form of the "yips.
>
> [WorldCat lists it as the 1st ed., Doubleday, although it's been
> reprinted well into the 1990s.]
>
>     VS-)
>
> On 10/1/2010 4:11 AM, Garson O'Toole wrote:
> > Here is a cite a couple years earlier written by the same sports
> > columnist. Once again the golfer Tommy Armour is featured. The
> > journalist, Grantland Rice, has placed the term yips within quotes:
> >
> > Cite: 1936 January 14, The (Baltimore) Sun, "Hagen Predicts Faster
> > Golf This Year Than Ever Before" by Grantland Rice, Page 11, Column 7,
> > Baltimore, Maryland. (ProQuest)
> >
> >                        "Yips" Got Him
> >
> > It was Tommy Armour who said that golf would be the greatest
> > competition in the world - the finest of all sporting tests - if it
> > wasn't for putting.
> >
> > "When those nerves in the wrists begin to hop," Armour said, "there is
> > nothing to be done about it not even by a Hagen or a Jones, a Vardon
> > or anyone else. When the 'yips' set in you are gone. Bobby Jones never
> > knew what the 'yips' were until his Augusta tournaments and then he
> > told me he would just as soon be nicked by a rattlesnake."
> >
> > Garson
> >
> > Garson O'Toole wrote
> >> Thanks for posting about this interesting word-of-the-day, Victor.
> >> Based on the great cites that you found I formulated a query and was
> >> able to push the date back a bit further. In the 1938 newspaper
> >> article below the professional golfer Tommy Armour is interviewed and
> >
>
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