[Ads-l] Note on "jass"

[Emily Gordon]

A college music instructor told us it was New Orleans slang for
masturbation, as in “jack off”/“jass off.” Improvisation, jamming being
jassing off. (I included it in a poem I wrote about jazz musicians at the
time, as well as the instructor/musician’s intriguing tip that frustrated
or bored musicians would play the rhythm “PAY the bills, PAY the bills,”
signaling their struggle to stay put.)

Looks like our own Ben Zimmer appeared on Grammar Girl to discuss this, and
namechecks ADS off the bat:

YouTube:

https://youtube.com/shorts/hk_R3BX0CFk?si=xxW1AlNEJPxEdA9b

Facebook version:

https://fb.watch/Hlt1lEWCWW/?mibextid=wwXIfr&fs=e

Here’s an interesting comment on the Facebook video by writer Seeley James,
who was born ~1956 and grew up in Scottsdale, Ariz.:

“A high school friend of mine recently retired from his position as the
professor of Jazz studies at the University of New Mexico. Years ago, he
told me a whole different origin story. His story rooted it in African
American folklore where it was not a clean word. It would've been verbally
attached to early forms of Jazz and probably didn't appear in print until
long after it became synonymous with the music. 🙂 The story was, it
relates to the orgasmic moment a musician feels when he hits the right riff
at the right time in the improvisational form developing in the late 19th
and early 20th centuries. But ... Mr. Zimmer's version is nice.”

On Tue, May 26, 2026 at 7:49 AM Jonathan Lighter <
00001aad181a2549-dmarc-request at listserv.uga.edu> wrote:

> Don't know if anyone has called attention to this, or even if it's of
> any significance.
>
> I've always wondered about the spelling of the "Original Dixie Land Jass
> Band."
>
> The cartoonist Harold Knerr, best known for taking over "The
> Katzenjammer Kids" in 1914, earlier penned a knock-off strip called
> "Die Fineheimer Twins," which began in 1903 and was syndicated
> nationally. It was still running in 1912.
>
> The Twins speak with a grotesque German-inspired accent. One recurring
> feature is the word "Jass," which means "yes."
>
> 1903 _Philadelphia Inquirer_  (March 15)   "Here iss der chance off a
> lifetime!" "Jass! Lets get some egs und stuff!"
>
> Etc., etc.  It seems likely that some readers under the age of twelve
> might have started saying "Jass!" That may have nothing to do with
> "jazz," but Knerr might be the source of the spelling "jass."
>
>
> 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
>

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