[Ads-l] antedating jake (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Mullins, Bill CIV (US)]

CLASSIFICATION: UNCLASSIFIED

OED has 1926 for "jake" n2 "An alcoholic beverage made from Jamaica ginger."

_Junction City [KS] Weekly Union_ 12 Sep 1912 p 1 col 4 [newspapers.com]
"Another thing that the officials are going to stop is the making of a near-jamaica ginger.  They say that some of this "jake" is made here by adding a small per cent of essence of ginger to alcohol, and that this is in violation of the state law, as well as the United States revenue law."




_Muskogee [OK] Times-Democrat_ 5 Sep 1919 p 9 col 3 [newspapers.com]

"Among the four men tried this morning, each of whom was fined $5, J. N. Watson admitted that he had been drinking "jake," but said that he had got it at Penscacola, Okla., and had forgotten to take it out of his bag when he came to Muskogee."

I went looking for jake cites after reading this fascinating article, about how blues and hillbilly singers recorded songs about jake paralysis during an epidemic of it.

http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/songs-of-prohibitions-poison/
CLASSIFICATION: UNCLASSIFIED

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org