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

[Amy West]

On 10/28/23 12:00 AM, ADS-L automatic digest system wrote:
> Date: Fri, 27 Oct 2023 16:41:51 +0000 From: "Baker, John" 
> <JBAKER at STRADLEY.COM> Subject: Re: Is "Jazzum" / "Jassum" the Etymon 
> of "Jazz" ? 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.) 


Sorry for the format munging done by my e-mailer, but I find the 
repeated appearance of saws or saw sounds in the cites defining "jasm" 
really interesting . . .

---Amy West

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