Origin of the term "the dozens"

[Harriet J Ottenheimer]

I knew I shouldn't have gotten involved in this discussion because it is so
deep and varied and the answer I gave was just a quick one, but over the
years, as I describe the dozens to my African American students, they have
given me that collection of words for the practice.  The student who called
it Jonesing was from DC and perhaps that was a variant pronunciation there.
Noone has ever mentioned Joning for the 30+ years that I've been listening.
As for origins, it's all pretty speculative at this point.  In any case,
some interesting reading is Roger Abrahams' old (1950s) article in Journal
of American Folklore about verbal duelling.  Some interesting listening is
1930s or 40s blues lyrics which allude to or even reproduce examples of
dozens (in particular songs by Roosevelt Sykes and Speckled Red).
Harriet Ottenheimer
Professor of Anthropology & American Ethnic Studies
Kansas State University
President, National Association for Ethnic Studies
http://www-personal.ksu.edu/~mahafan
http://www.ethnicstudies.org

P L Patrick wrote:

> In general I worry a bit about treating African american performance
> rituals and terms in a simplistic way, as though they aren't flexible,
> influenced by region, generation, context etc. But a good source for
> such quick definitions if they're needed is dictionaries such as Geneva
> Smitherman's "Black Talk" (1994). About THE DOZENS she says:
>
> "A verbal ritual of talking negatively about someone's mother (or
> occasionally grandmothers and other female relatives) by ocming up with
> outlandish, highly exaggerated, often sexually loaded, humorous
> 'insults'...[describes use]... The term, though not the ritual itself,
> is believed to have originated during enslavement, wherein slave
> auctioneers sold defective 'merchandise', e.g. sick slaves or older
> slaves, in lots of a dozen; thus a slave who was part of a dozens group
> was 'inferior'. Portrayed in the 1992 film 'White Men Can't Jump'."
> (pp99-100)
>
> This is quite different, as far as I know, from more general practices
> of talking someone down, which could be called "cutting" or "ranking"
> or "low-rating" someone.
>         There is a related practice -- or maybe the same, called by a
> different name-- in the Washington DC area, where it's known as JONIN'.
> (I've only observed this with kids, but don't know if that's an
> accidental restriction.) This is an example of regional usage which is
> often overlooked in Black speech.
>         Maybe someone somewhere says JONESIN' for the same activity,
> but as far as I know that's quite different! and you don't wanna go
> confusing the two... Sister G has JONES on p147, but makes no mention
> of JONIN'.
>         I'll take this opportunity to plug my website on African
> American English:
>         http://privatewww.essex.ac.uk/~patrickp/AAVE.html
> I haven't done anything to update it in the last year or two, but if
> viewers will give me feedback and suggestions I'll be grateful. It has
> a bibliography, summaries of selected redaings, a course syllabus for a
> graduate seminar dated 1997, a FAQ, links and a couple texts.
> Contributions welcomed.
>         --plp
>
> On Wed, 01 Nov 2000 14:22:22 -0600 Harriet J Ottenheimer
> <mahafan at ksu.edu> wrote:
>
> > I believe some words currently in use (I am sure there are more that I
> > don't know about) are jonesing, cutting, cut-lows, and ranking.
> > --Harriet Ottenheimer
> >
>
> Prof. Peter L. Patrick
> Dept. of Language & Linguistics
> University of Essex
> Wivenhoe Park
> COLCHESTER CO4 3SQ
> U.K.
>
> Tel: (from within UK) 01206.87.2088
>     (from outside UK) +44.1206.87.2088
> Fax: (as above)           1206.87.2198
> Email: patrickp at essex.ac.uk
> Web: http://privatewww.essex.ac.uk/~patrickp