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

Fri Oct 27 16:41:51 UTC 2023

I believe that "jasm," "jazm," "jassum," and "jazzum" are clearly just different spellings of the same word.  I also believe that the word clearly was not devised by a university leader, although claims to that effect likely were sincere.  Consider these historical examples.

1860:  "'If you'll take thunder and lightening, and a steamboat and a buzz-saw, and mix 'em up, and put 'em into a woman, that's jasm.'"  (Currently in HDAS and OED.)

The Chronicle (Univ. of Michigan), vol. 15, at 201 (May 24, 1884) (Google Books):

"Jasm:
'Tis a spasm
Of the moving protoplasm
In a keg of shingle-nails.
'Tis
A whizz
Of the circulating fizz
Of the toothsome saw.
'Tis the stirring
And the whirring
And the energizing slurring
Of the protoplasmic nails
By the toothsome saw;
Of the haemaglobic cones
And the premature dry bones
By the true symbolic saw,
Of humanity.     --Brunonia"       {The "Brunonia" signature may mean that the poem is written by an alumnus of Brown University.)

1900:  "Mr. Andrews, ex-president of Brown University, once in Boston, said that to express the get-there spirit of certain Americans had 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.""  (This is Barry's find, reproduced more fully below by Fred.)

Leon Mead, Word-Coinage:  Being an Inquiry into Recent Neologisms Also a Brief Study of Literary Style, Slang, and Provincialisms 87 (1902) (Google Books):  "Rev. Augustus H. Strong . . . suggested that if I should write to E. Benjamin Andrews, Chancellor of the University of Nebraska, for his definition of the word _jasm_, I might secure a treasure.  I did so, and Dr. Andrews sent me the following definition:  "Pass a circular saw revolving five hundred times a second through a keg of tenpenny nails.  That is _jasm_.""

Pacific Rural Press, vol. 90, at 219 (Sept. 4, 1915) (Google Books):

""Jasm":  A Needful Thing.
It is fortunate that we have a new word, used for the first time in our hearing at a university meeting in which ex-President Taft participated.  The President of the University of Minnesota, Dr. Vincent, was also present and he is credited with the coinage of the new word, although he did not use it on that occasion.  The definition of "jasm" is given by a figure of speech but not in words, viz.:  "Jasm is what happens when a buzz saw running 1500 revolutions per second strikes a keg of tenpenny nails."  It is obviously applicable to a foot-ball strimmage or other great issue in action, and it is held by some philologists to be a sublimated form of "pep" or "ginger.""

Barry's cites, below, include a number of additional examples referring to these words as being saw-like.

John Baker

From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> On Behalf Of David Daniel
Sent: Friday, October 27, 2023 5:57 AM
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Subject: RES: Is "Jazzum" / "Jassum" the Etymon of "Jazz" ?

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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<mailto: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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