Ragged but Right (pt. 1) -- (on "jazz")

[Ben Zimmer]

Stephen Goranson wrote:
>
> It's  hard to keep up with all this jazz, but about a  quote that I
> think was previously mentioned:
>
> Headline: "I Grab You, Gus!" Grab This and Master it Thoroughly; it is
> the Latest in; Article Type: News/Opinion
> Paper: Duluth News-Tribune, published as The Sunday News Tribune; Date:
> 06-22-1913; Volume: 45; Issue: 58; Page: 10; Location: Duluth, Minnesota
> (Am. Hist. Newsp.)
>
> "Take Frisco, the great slang factory...."Are you jerry to the old jazz"
> meaning thereby, "Are you hep to the ____" whatever you are supposed to
> be hep to. "Jazz" stands for whatever you want it to."

Gerald Cohen wrote:
>
> P.S. Also, IIRC, I've seen an article with the phrase "are you jerry to
> the old jazz" (with "jazz" here attributed to San Francisco) but can't
> locate it at the moment.

I reported on the Duluth News-Tribune article back in 2007:
http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0706D&L=ADS-L&P=R1097

...noting that it had been inspired by a syndicated article on "city
slang" that Barry Popik found in the Fort Wayne Sentinel (6/4/13) and
that I found in the Idaho Daily Statesman (6/5/13):
http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0312D&L=ADS-L&P=R2111

--bgz

--
Ben Zimmer
http://benzimmer.com/

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