[Ads-l] "jabroni" redux

[Ben Zimmer]

My Wall Street Journal column this week is on the epithet "jabroni," which
was recently used by Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce referring to
the mayor of Cincinnati:

https://on.wsj.com/3WYeYao (hopefully not paywalled)

I also followed up with a Twitter thread with more on the history of the
term:

https://twitter.com/bgzimmer/status/1621278083201261569

While the spelling "jiboney"/"giboney" goes back to 1919 in the writing of
Jack "Con" Conway for Variety, Barry Popik recently found "jabroney" in the
Brooklyn Daily Eagle of 1924-25, making it the earliest known variant
spelled with an "r."

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https://www.newspapers.com/clip/117555179/jabroney-1924/
Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Nov 15, 1924, p. 5, col. 3
"Raspberry Garlands and Bay Leaves" by George Currie
Mr Clinton Lucerne Mosher of Summit, N.J., who in spite of his new raccoon
coat and galloping Lizzie has the heart of a vagabond, informs me that the
term hobo is being kept alive as a corn-plaster advertisement prop and that
the only word "a respectable law-abiding bum would answer to is jabroney."
It only goes to show how young America is rapidly outgrowing Mr. Noah
Webster and Messrs. Funk & Wagnalls.
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https://www.newspapers.com/clip/117555417/jabroney-1925/
Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Jan. 2, 1925, p. 6, col. 3
"Savants And Our Language"
To wake up to the younger generation, with its "oil cans," "bimboes," "wet
smacks," "jabroney," etc. [...]
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--bgz

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