"jazzy": slight antedatings

Jesse Sheidlower jester at PANIX.COM
Sun Sep 4 00:00:43 UTC 2011


On Sat, Sep 03, 2011 at 07:20:52PM -0400, Ben Zimmer wrote:
> On Sat, Sep 3, 2011 at 7:09 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> >
> > HDAS has this from Nov. 30, 1917.
> >
> > 1917 _Chicago Tribune_ (Jan. 17) 3 [ProQuest]: "O for a Jaz [sic] Band and
> > Some Rag" ...[T]he announcement was made that the oldest of the old time
> > dances would take precedence over jazzy one steps and fox trots.
> >
> > 1917 Ibid. (Sept. 25) 13 [ProQuest]: Official U.S. Navy Minstrels 100 -
> > Jazzy Jackies - 100 - 20 Big Acts....Also Sousa's Band.
>
> The July 11, 1915 article with the earliest known musical "jazz" cites includes
> the line "'Blue' Marion sat down and jazzed the jazziest streak of jazz ever."

...which is cited in the OED.

But in Jon's quote, if _jazzy_ means 'lively, spirited; flashy' as
opposed to 'relating to or having the characteristics of jazz', it's an
antedating of OED sense 2.

Jesse Sheidlower
OED

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