[Ads-l] ska (1963)

[Ben Zimmer]

An early variant spelling of "ska" was "sca." Slightly antedating the
letter to the editor cited below is a Daily Gleaner advertisement
for "Jamaica's Best Dance Band, Kes Chin & His Souvenirs" with guest artist
"Lester 'Sca' Sterling," from Oct. 6, 1963:

https://newspaperarchive.com/entertainment-clipping-oct-06-1963-1967459/

More on Sterling: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lester_Sterling

This clipping can also be found in a blog post from 2013 by Heather
Augustyn:

http://skabook.com/origins-word-ska/

Another Daily Gleaner clipping in the post is misdated, however -- the ad
for "Jamaica Sca Nite" at the Glass Bucket Club is from Apr. 3, 1964, not
1963.

https://newspaperarchive.com/entertainment-clipping-apr-03-1964-1967452/

--bgz

On Mon, Sep 14, 2020 at 6:15 PM Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at gmail.com> wrote:

> The earliest OED2 citation for "ska" as the Jamaican musical genre is Mar.
> 17, 1964. Fred Shapiro slightly antedated this to Mar. 14, 1964 with a cite
> from Melody Maker:
> http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/2015-February/136041.html
>
> Here it is from Oct. 9, 1963, in a letter to the editor complaining about
> music played on radio programs of the Jamaica Broadcasting Corporation
> (JBC).
>
> ---
> 1963 _Daily Gleaner_ (Kingston, Jamaica) 9 Oct. 8/3 There is, however, one
> unpleasant musical form known as the "Ska beat" which is popular on the
> evening programmes of both stations.
> https://newspaperarchive.com/entertainment-clipping-oct-09-1963-1967363/
> ---
>
>

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