[Ads-l] Note on "jass"

[Jonathan Lighter]

OED scoffs.

JL


JL

On Tue, May 26, 2026 at 11:30 AM Emily Gordon
<0000205244c4ee9d-dmarc-request at listserv.uga.edu> wrote:
>
> 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
> >
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



--
"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