[Ads-l] Wikipedia Claim About "Jazz"

Wed Mar 27 15:42:58 UTC 2019

Some word-origins or phrase-origins seem to attract wrong-headed theories more than others.  "Whole nine yards," certainly.  "O.K.," certainly.  I think "jazz" is one of these.

Fred Shapiro

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From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of Cohen, Gerald Leonard <gcohen at MST.EDU>
Sent: Wednesday, March 27, 2019 11:24 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: Wikipedia Claim About "Jazz"

Here's a footnote to the subject:

Dick Holbrook wrote two items on jazz:

  1.  1965 -- Jazz Rustitutions, No. 9,

             Vintage Jazz Mart, pp. 4-5.

        2. 1973-1974.  Our Word "Jazz". Storyville

            (Dec. 1973-Jan. 1974). Pp. 46-58.

Neither item mentions  the supposed

March 3, 1906 "jazz" attestation in the

San Francisco Bulletin.

Gerald Cohen

------------------

On Tuesday, March 26, 2019 Gerald Cohen wrote:

I'm grateful to John for correcting the Wikipedia
item on the word "jazz." Would it perhaps also be
possible to update the reference to my 2005
Comments on Etymology working paper (Draft
#3)?  That working paper should be replaced by
the book I authored (with due credit always given)
titled _Origin Of The Term "Jazz"_ (self-published, 2015),
193 pages. A copy is available in the library
of Missouri University of Science & Technology.
It represents 25+ years of research and is the most
complete treatment of the subject.

Btw, the publishing project is non-profit (per copy:
$25 + $10 mailing costs; book has soft cover).
I have about 40 copies left. It would be good if
a few more libraries could have a copy.

Gerald Cohen

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From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of Baker,=
 John <JBAKER at STRADLEY.COM>
Sent: Monday, March 25, 2019 6:20 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: Wikipedia Claim About "Jazz"

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Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Poster:       "Baker, John" <JBAKER at STRADLEY.COM>
Subject:      Re: Wikipedia Claim About "Jazz"
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I try to keep an eye on changes to the Wikipedia article
on "Jazz (word)" (which, as some may recall, I originally drafted), but that one slipped by me.
As it happens, the cited source does say that Holbrook
 found "jazz" used in the San Francisco Bulletin in 1906.
 But since that seems not to be the case, I have deleted
the statement from the Wikipedia article.

John Baker

From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of=
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 Cohen, Gerald Leonard
Sent: Monday 25 March 2019 8:54 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: Wikipedia Claim About "Jazz"

External Email - Think Before You Click

Stephen and Fred are justified in their skepticism

of the supposed March 3, 1906 attestation of "jazz"

in the San Francisco Bulletin (supposedly located by Holbrook).

To be clear: That supposed 1906 attestation does not

exist. And Dick Holbrook certainly never suggested

it did. Holbrook's most important discovery was

an April 5, 1913 article in the San Francisco Bulletin

in which "jazz" is described as "a futurist word which

has just joined the language."

If the writer of the Wikipedia item would like any guidance on this, I'll b=
=3D
e happy to provide it.

Gerald Cohen

author of _Origin of the Term "Jazz"_, 2015.

(includes the detailed contributions of

ads-l members)

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From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of Stephe=
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n Goranson <goranson at DUKE.EDU>
Sent: Monday, March 25, 2019 7:20 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: Wikipedia Claim About "Jazz"

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Sender: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Poster: Stephen Goranson <goranson at DUKE.EDU>
Subject: Re: Wikipedia Claim About "Jazz"
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----

Others here know more about jazz than I, but I suspect an error, perhaps a =
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typo. The 1903 claim apparently was added in a 12 Feb. 2019 edit by Vmavant=
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i, who is apparently a senior editor, and claimed to have added "sourced ma=
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terial." (A wiki vet maybe could contact him or her.) But this is not clear=
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ly sourced. Was it putatively Dick Horton but mentioned in an unnoticed pub=
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lication (such as a letter to Storyville?) or Horton orally as re-reported =
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by Richard M. Sudhalter (Lost Chords, a 2001 book)? It's hard to imagine th=
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at any such report went unnoticed till last month. Also, besides the early =
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1903 date, at least in the snippet quoted, it seems a later development, as=
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if jazz is already understood, and this is a special extreme form of it. B=
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ut others know more.

SG

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From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of Shapir=
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=3D3D
o, Fred <fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU>
Sent: Monday, March 25, 2019 6:36:43 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: [ADS-L] Wikipedia Claim About "Jazz"

I notice the Wikipedia article on "Jazz (Word)" makes the following asserti=
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on: "Holbrook found a reference in sports section the March 3, 1906 San Fra=
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e jazz', i.e. enthusiastic." Is this just a complete error or fabrication?

Fred Shapiro

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