[Ads-l] Antedating of "Gate" (Person, Jazz Slang)

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

Fred Shapiro wrote:
> gate (OED, 5.d., 1937)
> This sense of the word "gate" is said to have occurred in the lyrics of the 1933 Bessie Smith song, "Give Me a Pigfoot and a Bottle of Beer": "Send me, gate, I don't care."

Green's Dictionary of Slang may have a pertinent citation. See further below.

Oxford English Dictionary
[Begin OED excerpt]
gate noun 1
5. figurative.
5.d. [See quot. 1937, but perhaps a shortening of alligator.] A
person, esp. a jazz-musician; = cat n.1 I.2c; frequently used as a
form of address. U.S. slang.

1937 When I was a kid..they started calling me 'Gate-mouth'... I
started calling the other boys 'Gate' too... Then I got used to saying
it and when I got into Kid Ory's band when the boys were all swinging
good and hot, I would sing out, 'Swing it, Gate'..and now 'Gate' is a
word swing players use when they call out to one another in their own
language.
L. Armstrong, Swing that Music vii. 77
[End excerpt OED]

Green's Dictionary of Slang
https://greensdictofslang.com/entry/kcrnodi
[Begin excerpt from GDoS]
gate n.
3. (US black, also gates) a person, a man, esp. as a term of address
[jazz jargon gate, a swing musician, ult. the ‘swinging’ of a gate +
abbr. gatemouth n.; the term, at its peak 1935–43, was popularized by
the comedian Jerry Colonna, who used it widely on Bob Hope’s radio
show].

1931 [US] Don Redmond 'Shakin' the African' 🎵 You know, a gate that
goes loco, man, / Doin' the African.
1939 [US] Detroit Free Press (MI) 17 Sept. 8/1: ‘Dear Gate’(That’s
swing slang for a real hot ride, man).
[End excerpt from GDoS]

Garson

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