[Ads-l] "Jazzum" ("jassim," 1908) in terms of "a dose"?

[Jonathan Lighter]

'Energy or enthusiasm'?

JL

On Wed, Oct 1, 2025 at 11:50 AM Bonnie Taylor-Blake <
00001a89b77a7850-dmarc-request at listserv.uga.edu> wrote:

> Nothing really remarkable here (this is not the earliest "jazzum," for
> example), but a question.
>
> Does this 1908 text, which seems to point to the basketball team,
> represent the first time we've seen "jazzum" (in this case, "jassim")
> used in a quasi-medicinal sense, here as "a dose [to be] taken"?
>
> (I mention this use because at least by 1913 West Coast sportswriters
> sometimes referred to "jazz" in the same therapeutic or restorative
> way. For example, with "dose" specifically, see
> https://www.newspapers.com/article/oakland-enquirer/142760252/.)
>
> ----------------
>
> The Y.M.C.A. state sec. J.T. Banks spent Friday with members of our
> organizatoin [sic]. A little lift is often appreciated and a dose of
> "jassim" always taken. ["Collge [sic] Notes," The Warrenton (Missouri)
> Banner, 6 November 1908, p. 1;
>
> https://www.newspapers.com/article/warrenton-banner-jassim-jazzum-jasm/167416959/
> .
> The column deals with news out of the now-defunct Central Wesleyan
> College.]
>
> ----------------
>
> -- Bonnie
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>


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