"spoofy" and "shimming" in Utah, 1919

[Jonathan Lighter]

If, as has been alleged, "jazz" was sex slang before it was zest and music
slang, that fact may well have escaped the notice of editors in 1912 and
later.

Such a word would *never* have appeared in public print in that
era. So knowledge of it could only have come from conversation.  If the word
was relatively new - say ten or twenty years old for the sake of argument -
and largely restricted to the red-light district of just one or two big
cities - it is perfectly possible that the few early journalists quoted (and
even the Original Dixieland Jazz Band) knew nothing about it.

Once it became associated publicly with energy and music, there would be no
reason not to print it.

Because of the social and media taboos of the period, the question will
probably remain moot.

I agree that the weight of the evidence now is that the sexual
meaning is secondary, but the pre-existence of "jasm" in a sexual as well as
a non-sexual sense, plus the relatively early assertion of a sexual meaning
(i.e., not many decades later as is the case of many false etymological
claims) leaves its primacy as a real possibility, IMO.

JL
On Sun, Mar 6, 2011 at 7:56 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: "spoofy" and "shimming" in Utah, 1919
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Sun, Mar 6, 2011 at 1:28 PM, George Thompson <george.thompson at nyu.edu>
> wrote:
> > [I]f a newspaper editor knew that in his region "jazz" was known as an
> obscenity, when "jazz" became a national musical fad, he would have shown
> some embarrassment in printing the word, or would have refused to print it
> at all. Â Here we have the student paper in Salt Lake City printing "jass
> orchestra" and "jazzing", with no qualms, to add to a number of other
> papers, north & south, east & west, that printed the word before 1920.
>
> Your logic is impeccable. However, it raises - or should that be
> "begs"? (for those with no sense of humor, the question is meant to be
> interpreted as facetious and not as a genuine request for guidance) -
> the question: how and when did _jass_ / _jazz_ come to take on, for a
> brief period, the relevant meaning?
>
> OTOH, one might argue that, given that Mormons are not known to get
> down, even today, perhaps the editor was simply unhip.
>
> --
> -Wilson
> -----
> All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint
> to come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
> -Mark Twain
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