[Ads-l] early "jazz"

[Jonathan Lighter]

As in "all that jazz"?

1913 _Milwaukee Journal_ (June 15) 4 [Newspapers.com]:  Take 'Frisco, the
great slang factory of this broad land. Out there they ask you "Are you
jerry to the old jazz?"' meaning thereby, "Are you hep to the --'" whatever
you are supposed to be hep to. 'Jazz' stands for whatever you want it to.

JL

-- 
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org