Pronunciation: Brit. /dʒaz/, U.S. /dʒæz/
Forms: jas (rare), jascz (nonstandard, rare), jasz (nonstandard, rare), jaz (rare), jass, jazz.
Etymology: Origin uncertain; perhaps originally a variant of jasm n.
Attested earliest in California, frequently in baseball contexts and as college slang. The existence of an article entitled ‘In praise of ‘jazz,’ a futurist word which has just joined the language’ (by E. J. Hopkins in Bulletin (San Francisco) (1913) 5 Apr. 28) suggests that the word was then a very recent innovation.
Apparently first applied to music in Chicago. Slightly earlier uses of the term are reported orally (some cited by D. Holbrook in Storyville (1973–4) 46-58), but cannot be confirmed. For a connection between Californian and Chicago uses compare:
- 1917 New Victor Records Jass Band & Other Dance Selections in H. O. Brunn Story Orig. Dixieland Jazz Band (1960) viii. 92 (plate) The Original Dixieland Jass Band…Spell it Jass, Jas, Jaz or Jazz—nothing can spoil a Jass band. Some say the Jass band originated in Chicago. Chicago says it comes from San Francisco—San Francisco being away off across the continent. Anyway, a Jass band is the newest thing in the cabarets, adding greatly to the hilarity thereof.
While the origins of jazz music are popularly associated with New Orleans, evidence for early use of the word there is inconclusive. Compare the following conflicting statements (it is possible that the reporter from Variety used a term known to him, but not in use locally):
- 1916 Variety 3 Nov. 20 Variety’s New Orleans correspondent [reports that]..‘Jazz Bands’ have been popular there for over two years.
- 1919 Lit. Digest 26 Apr. 47 The phrase ‘jazz band’ was first used by Bert Kelly in Chicago in the fall of 1915, and was unknown in New Orleans.
The suggestion that the sexual sense was primary is unlikely, chiefly for semantic reasons, though not impossible.
A derivation < French jaser to chatter, gossip (16th cent. in Middle French; also earlier in an apparently isolated attestation as gaser with reference to birdsong; of uncertain origin) is also unlikely on semantic grounds. The French word (or a homonym) is apparently also occas. attested with reference to sexual activity, although in the following example the illustrative French quotation is taken from a 17th-century text:
- 1896 J. S. Farmer Vocab. Amatoria 162 Jaser (or Jazer). To copulate; ‘to chuck a tread’. Tu as les genoux chauds, tu veux jaser.—La Comédie des proverbes.
A supposed African origin discussed in the article from which the following passage is taken was later shown to have been invented by the author:
- 1917 Sun (N.Y.) 5 Aug. iii. 3/6 Variously spelled Jas, Jass, Jaz, Jazz, Jasz and Jascz. The word is African in origin. It is common on the Gold Coast of Africa and in the hinterland of Cape Coast Castle.
The word was associated with the name of the apparently fictitious Jasbo Brown by 1919.
A suggested etymology < the female forename Jezebel, allegedly used in 19th-cent. New Orleans to denote a prostitute, cannot be substantiated, nor can a derivation < jasmine n., suggested on the grounds that it may have been a perfume worn by prostitutes. Both suggestions also pose semantic problems.
A suggested etymology < Irish teas heat (ultimately < the same Indo-European base as classical Latin tepēre to be warm) cannot be substantiated and is unlikely in view of the context of early uses of the word.
The forms jasz and jascz are unlikely to have had any actual currency. The forms jas and jaz went out of use before the middle of the 20th cent.
Sources: http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/100938?rskey=cF9CM0&result=1#eid