[Ads-l] RES: Is "Jazzum" / "Jassum" the Etymon of "Jazz" ?

[David Daniel]

Sounds more like a relative of "jism" to me, as in spunk.
DAD

-----Mensagem original-----
De: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] Em nome de
Shapiro, Fred
Enviada em: quinta-feira, 26 de outubro de 2023 23:28
Para: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Assunto: Is "Jazzum" / "Jassum" the Etymon of "Jazz" ?

Subject:      Is "Jazzum" / "Jassum" the Etymon of "Jazz" ?
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Is it possible that Barry Popik has discovered, in "jazzum," the etymon of =
"jazz''?  Barry has emailed a number of people presenting a cryptic 1900 ci=
tation for "jazzum."  I want to present some intriguing evidence that seemi=
ngly links "jazzum" to "jazz" not only in form but also semantically.  I ob=
tain this evidence by searching for the variant "jassum" in Newspapers.com.=
  There are citations for "jassum" that have the connotation of "energy" an=
d, explicitly, "pep" that are also present in many early citations for "jaz=
z."

[1902  Town Talk (Alexandria, La.)  10 Dec. 2  Beneath a beautiful starlit =
night, with zephyrs floating through the transoms, laden with the orange an=
d jassum.]

1915  Oakland Enquirer  4 Oct. 7  A "jassum relay" is the newest thing in c=
inder path affairs.

1915  University Oklahoman  8 Oct. 4  The words adapted from the favorite g=
ridiron song of an eastern university, and the music, calculated to inspire=
unmitigated "jassum" in the most sophisticated freshman or the most staid =
senior, have been sung in eleven hundred different shades of vocalizing at =
every meeting of students since Assembly Wednesday morning, and at none wer=
e they better used as vehicles of "pep" than at meetings called for that pu=
rpose.

1915  University Oklahoman  15 Oct. 1  Everyone was jam full of jassum.

1915  University Oklahoman  29 Oct. 1  The advance of fashions and the broa=
dening of the mind induced by the growth of Jassum.

1916  Wewoka (Okla.) Democrat  18 May 1  The High School students all came =
together, and the "Jassum Kings" reigned again in all their former glory.

1916  Norman (Okla.) Democrat-Topic 28 July 1  All of the members of the gr=
aduating class are putting forth every effort to make the evening's enterta=
inment full of "pep," "jassum" and life.

Although I am suggesting that "jassum" is the immediate etymon of "jazz," J=
ohn Baker has pointed out: "I assume that 'jazzum' is just a variant spelli=
ng of 'jasm,' already identified as the most likely source for 'jazz.'"  Th=
is may be persuasive as the ultimate etymon.  The significance of the "jass=
um" citations may be the explicit lining up in some of them with the word "=
pep," which was clearly a synonym of "jazz."  If the 1900 occurrence of "ja=
zzum" is the same word as in the 1915 and 1916 citations of "jassum" and no=
t a pure coincidence, then the prehistory of "jazz" begins by 1900.

I should provide Barry's 1900 citation here:

1900  Los Angeles Times 29 June 8  Mr. Andrews, ex-president of Brown Unive=
rsity, once in Boston, said that to express the get-there spirit of certain=
Americans he had been forced to coin a new word.  That the word was sugges=
ted to him by the sound of a large circular saw when it meets a knot as it =
bites its way through the huge log.  The word is euphonic, and is, in fact,=
"Jazzum."  One can almost picture the operation and feel his nerves on edg=
e as he speaks the word.  It is a good word; Roosevelt has the quality and =
is sure to take lots of jazzum into the Senate with him.  There is a magnet=
ism about him which appeals to every energetic man.

Fred Shapiro
Editor
New Yale Book of Quotations (Yale University Press)







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