Jazz, was:RE: [ADS-L] Q: "Earliest written reference to baseball"

[Jonathan Lighter]

My tentative belief for decades has been that it is a form of _jasm_,
which is attested for decades before 1912.

It meant both both "energy" and "seminal fluid." Presumably "energy" came
first.
(Cf. the similar development of  - mainly British - _spunk_.)

JL

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