jizz

[Stephen Goranson]

OED has an entry for jizz, n., "The characteristic impression given by an animal or plant." The OED articles on jazz do not include jizz as a variant spelling, though some late texts suggest it may be. The OED's first two quotations for jizz are from a 1922 book. That book reprints a 1921 article in the Manchester Guardian, Dec. 6, 1921, p. 14, col. 1 [*1]. "Jizz" occurs more than a dozen times in the article, four of which appear in OED. An example from the article and not in OED: "....all the pose, attitude, and habit-character is lost, when the bird becomes a [dead] specimen. Its jizz is gone."

Other appearances of jizz:

GB copyright entries: 5535. Brown (It. E.) That jazz jizz jazziest hug. 18050. 1920, pub 1921
More editions
GB jizz 1913 Saturday evening post [Philadelphia Graham?] v185 issue 6???[I don't have this volume to check, and did not confirm at HT--is anyone interested in checking?]
HT p481 ...dancer.  Have you seen "Hullo Jizz-Jazz"The strand magazine. v.57 1919 Jan-Jun. p482  stage box for Hullo Jizz Jazz,....

Stephen Goranson
http://www.duke.edu/~goranson

[*1] For those with access:
http://search.proquest.com/hnpguardianobserver/docview/476538995/fulltextPDF/134FB9715B973A6749B/23?accountid=10598

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