[Ads-l] Antedating of "Salty" (= Angry)

[Ben Zimmer]

I shared a "salty" citation from July 18, 1935 in a 2015 ADS-L post.

https://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/2015-January/135691.html

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at gmail.com>
Date: Fri, Jan 16, 2015 at 2:21 PM
Subject: "(jump) salty"
To: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at listserv.uga.edu>

My latest Wall St. Journal column is on "salty" ('exceptionally
bitter, angry, or upset'), which won the Most Likely to Succeed
category in the ADS WOTY voting. I talk about how it's a revival of
African-American slang dating back to the '30s, particularly in the
expression "jump salty" (which has come up on ADS-L several times).

http://www.wsj.com/articles/a-salty-word-with-a-promising-future-1421427784

The column includes a modest antedating for "jump salty," which OED2
has from 1938 and HDAS and GDoS have from 1936:

1935 _Philadelphia Tribune_ 18 July 11/1 Now as far as France and
Italy were concerned, Hitler was jumping salty, spreading that jive.

There are a few other examples from 1935 in the Philadelphia Tribune.
It's interesting that the early examples are found in Philly,
considering how "salty" has persisted in urban slang there.

http://articles.philly.com/2014-02-20/entertainment/47493528_1_dialect-william-labov-slang

--bgz


On Tue, Jul 8, 2025 at 7:17 AM Shapiro, Fred <
00001ac016895344-dmarc-request at listserv.uga.edu> wrote:

> salty (OED, adj.1, 5., 1938)
>
> 1935 New York Age 31 Aug. 7/4 (Newspapers.com)
>
> In the Merrick Park there are two girls that "Jump Salty" once in a while
> for nothing.
>
> Fred Shapiro
>
>

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