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

[Jonathan Lighter]

The Concise Scots Dictionary restricts _jass_, n., to Aberdeenshire from the
19th C. on.
It doesn't include the verb, which suggests that its use was pretty rare.

The verb could, in theory, lend itself to a sexual meaning (cf. _bonk_,
though that's obviously much later). But _jass_, v., is awfully obscure. No
evidence seems to exist of U.S. "jazz" in a corresponding sense ('to strike,
slug, etc.') that might be dragooned into support for a relationship

I didn't allude to _jass_ in HDAS because of the remoteness of
the relationship between
NE Scotland in the 19th C. and the U.S. West Coast in 1912. I don't think
there's any likelihood, based on available evidence, that Scots _jass_ is
related to -jazz_.

JL



On Wed, Mar 16, 2011 at 12:05 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: Jazz,              was:RE: [ADS-L] Q: "Earliest written
>              reference to baseball"
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> That's interesting--just as a coincidence. I just sifted through,
> briefly, through an issue of Trans. Philological Society, 1866,
> specifically, the glossary for the Dialect of Banffshire. And, among the
> rest of some very odd stuff (I am not familiar with Gaelic), there is an
> entry for "jass".
>
> http://goo.gl/Uh5Of
> > Jass, /n. /(1) a violent throw; a dash; as " He threw 'im our wee a
> > /jass." /(2) A heavy blow; as, " He got a /jass //o' /the back it
> > knockit 'im on's nose." (3) The noise made by a heavy blow, or by
> > anything falling heavily. Another form is /yass. //Jass /is a stronger
> > term than /joss, /which is given by Jamieson.
> > Jass, /v.a. /to throw with violence; to dash ; as, " The ae loon
> > /jasst /the ither our on's back." /Joss, /given by Jamieson, is a
> > milder term.
> > Jassan, n. a violent tossing or shaking ; a violent dash.
>
> In particular, note (3) under "Jass, n.".
>
>     VS-)
>  On 3/16/2011 10:16 AM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> > 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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