[Ads-l] Antedating of "Heebie-Jeebies"

[Ben Zimmer]

Amazing find, Fred! That certainly undercuts the purported "Barney Google"
origin that many have written about, including me. This Word Routes column
of mine from 2015 includes the Oct. 26, 1923 "Barney Google" strip by Billy
DeBeck cited by OED et al:

https://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wordroutes/how-did-we-get-the-heebie-jeebies/

While Fred's find of Aug. 2 is the new date to beat, here it is from Sept.
12 in the same newspaper (and perhaps the same writer):

---
Chicago Daily News, Sept. 12, 1923, p. 34, col. 1 [Genealogybank]
Find Bootleg Booze Poor to Poisonous
Chemists' Tests Prove Only 1 to 20 Per Cent Is Genuine Whisky.
At the Columbus laboratories, which test everything that can be poured, the
chemist had no statistics handy from which to make any deductions in
percentage. He did say, however, that patrons solicitous about the
heebie-jeebies were by no means few; and that the samples of whisky, gin
and alcohol that came under observation were not 100 percent pure.
---

Notably, DeBeck lived in Chicago and had previously worked for the Daily
News, though by the time he created "Barney Google" he was employed by
Hearst's Chicago Herald.

--bgz

On Thu, Aug 14, 2025 at 8:52 PM Shapiro, Fred <
00001ac016895344-dmarc-request at listserv.uga.edu> wrote:

> heebie-jeebies (OED 1923 [26 Oct.])
>
> 1923 Daily News (Chicago) 2 Aug. 15/2 (GenealogyBank)
>
> To baffle human ills, in the gamut between the rheumatism and the
> heebie-jeebies, go to the laboratory instead of the hospital.
>
> NOTE: This citation appears to undermine the attribution by HDAS and Green
> to the Barney Google comic strip as the source of "heebie jeebies," since
> the citation is earlier than the first appearance of the term in the comic.
>
>
>

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