[Ads-l] Antedating of "Jigaboo"

[Peter Reitan]

I've posted  twice about the origins of "Ji-Ji-Boo" on my blog, and shared highlights here.

https://esnpc.blogspot.com/2022/03/ji-ji-boo-j-oshea-how-name-of-stranded.html

https://esnpc.blogspot.com/2023/06/ji-ji-boo-2-etymology-of-jigaboo.html

https://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/2022-March/161169.html

"Gigaboo" was used in an L. Frank Baum book published in 1900.  In that case, it seems to be reference to something like a bugaboo, and is not clearly related to later usage.

"Zigaboo," which once was an alternate form of "Jigaboo" in the now familiar sense of the word, dates to as early as 1896, but not clearly related to later uses.

Widespread use of "Jigaboo" may be derived from a song about a character named "Ji-Ji-Boo Jay O'Shea" in a song called "I've Got Rings on My Fingers."

That character was an Irishman who became stranded on an "Eastern Isle" (South Pacific/East Indies).  There, he became a local leader.  The supporting characters on stage during the song were presumably portrayed by white actors in blackface.

The earliest use of "Zigaboo" to refer to black people may be as early as 1914.  The earliest unambiguous example dates to 1917.

"THE PLACE TO SERVE
Sam Green is a regular soldier man,
Of African descent;
The world is bright when Sam can fight
With a Zigaboo regiment."

Commercial Appeal (Memphis, Tennessee), July 8, 1917, page 5 The Hutchinson Gazette (Hutchinson, Kansas), March 28, 1918, page 10 (beginning in March 1918, the poem was reprinted in more than a dozen newspapers in Kansas and Oklahoma). Newspapers.com

The earliest unambiguous example of "Jigaboo," in the familiar sense of the word, that I found is from 1921.

"How come? Jigaboo slashed so requires 52 stiches to close wounds, said he was 'only foolin'. What's his idea of a real good time?"
New Castle Herald (Pennsylvania), August 12, 1921, page 4.

The 1922 example Fred Shapiro found is in a description of a movie, in which one of the characters is referred to as a "devoted jigaboo."   In my blog post, I have a photo of what I believe is that character, played by a white man in black face.

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Subject: Antedating of "Jigaboo"

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jigaboo (OED 1924)

1922 Chicago Daily Tribune 24 June 12/1 (Newspapers.com)

He is accompanied by a devoted jigaboo (ask any Yellow driver what that mea=
ns) who has, I quote the subtitle, "raised him from a pup."

Fred Shapiro

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