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

[Jonathan Lighter]

See HDAS II for more (s.v. "jasm").

JL

On Thu, Oct 26, 2023 at 10:54 PM Shapiro, Fred <fred.shapiro at yale.edu>
wrote:

> Here's another "jassum" / "pep" citation:
>
> 1916  Daily Pioneer  (Alva, Okla.)  10 Oct. 1  MONSTER PEP MEETING
> TONIGHT  King Jassum Predominates at Northwestern This Week  ... The cold
> weather is welcomed by the men and seems to add to the pep in the squad.
>
> Fred Shapiro
> Editor
> New Yale Book of Quotations (Yale University Press)
>
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: Shapiro, Fred <fred.shapiro at yale.edu>
> Sent: Thursday, October 26, 2023 10:28 PM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Subject: Is "Jazzum" / "Jassum" the Etymon of "Jazz" ?
>
> 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
> citation for "jazzum."  I want to present some intriguing evidence that
> seemingly links "jazzum" to "jazz" not only in form but also semantically.
> I obtain this evidence by searching for the variant "jassum" in
> Newspapers.com.  There are citations for "jassum" that have the connotation
> of "energy" and, explicitly, "pep" that are also present in many early
> citations for "jazz."
>
> [1902  Town Talk (Alexandria, La.)  10 Dec. 2  Beneath a beautiful starlit
> night, with zephyrs floating through the transoms, laden with the orange
> and jassum.]
>
> 1915  Oakland Enquirer  4 Oct. 7  A "jassum relay" is the newest thing in
> cinder path affairs.
>
> 1915  University Oklahoman  8 Oct. 4  The words adapted from the favorite
> gridiron 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 were they better used as vehicles of "pep" than at meetings
> called for that purpose.
>
> 1915  University Oklahoman  15 Oct. 1  Everyone was jam full of jassum.
>
> 1915  University Oklahoman  29 Oct. 1  The advance of fashions and the
> broadening 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
> graduating class are putting forth every effort to make the evening's
> entertainment full of "pep," "jassum" and life.
>
> Although I am suggesting that "jassum" is the immediate etymon of "jazz,"
> John Baker has pointed out: "I assume that 'jazzum' is just a variant
> spelling of 'jasm,' already identified as the most likely source for
> 'jazz.'"  This may be persuasive as the ultimate etymon.  The significance
> of the "jassum" 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 "jazzum" is the same word as in the 1915 and 1916 citations
> of "jassum" and not 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
> University, 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
> suggested 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 edge 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 magnetism about him which appeals to every energetic man.
>
> Fred Shapiro
> Editor
> New Yale Book of Quotations (Yale University Press)
>
>
>
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>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>


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