Pittsburghism(?) "jagoff"

[Jonathan Lighter]

HDAS: app. well established by 1938.

And here's a surprise:

1937 _Catalog of Copyright Entries: Musical Compositions Part 3_  (Wash.
DC: GPO) 177: Nothing but a jerk-off: song  c[opyright] ...Jan. 29, 1937
...Jane Blanc, Philadelphia.

HDAS records a literary use at about the same time from Pietro di Donato's
once-celebrated _Christ in Concrete_.

JL

On Mon, Jul 9, 2012 at 12:21 AM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Pittsburghism(?) "jagoff"
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Sun, Jul 8, 2012 at 11:48 PM, Douglas G. Wilson <douglas at nb.net> wrote:
> >
> http://www.pghcitypaper.com/pittsburgh/let-us-now-praise-famous-jagoffs/Content?oid=1537997
>
> '… the verb "to jag" meant "to prick or poke" ...'
>
> How does that preclude a direct relationship of "jag-off" to
> "jack-off"?! Go home and use your prick to poke your old lady! ;-)
>
> In the animated series, Metalocolypse. "regular jack-off" - maybe
> "regular jag-off" - is used to refer to the unhip man-in-the-street.
> --
> -Wilson
> -----
> All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint
> to come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
> -Mark Twain
>
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