Fwd: "jive" - Word of the Day from the OED

[Dave Monroe]

Jamf

In May 1995, Alan Westrope posted the following to the Pynchon List
regarding the etymology of "Jamf":

As a result of my delightfully dissipated saxophone-playing youth, I
have long been aware of the origin of the term "jamf." [...] Earlier
today I found this book:

AUTHOR(s): Gold, Robert S., 1924-
TITLE(s): Jazz talk
New York : Da Capo Press, 1982, c1975.
xii, 322 p. ; 22 cm. --
Unabridged republication of the 1st ed. published by
Bobbs-Merrill Co., Indianapolis, 1975.

While examining the entry for "jive" I found this on page 148:

4. jive, jiver, jive mother-fucker, jive-ass mother-fucker, jamf (oral
evidence only for the last three)...jamf is an abbreviation of
jive-ass mother-fucker and is said to have originated with Charlie
Parker;

This is precisely how I've heard "jamf" used, of course! It's always
nice to have it confirmed, though, and I was pleasantly surprised by
the level of scholarship in Gold's book -- it's far better than most
similar endeavors.

http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=9505&msg=1392
http://www.hyperarts.com/thomas-pynchon/gravitys-rainbow/extra/jamf.html
http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Laszlo_Jamf#Etymology_of_.22Jamf.22

"Has anyone heard from Alan lately?"

http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=0405&msg=91008

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From:  <oedwotd at oup.com>
Date: Tue, Feb 10, 2009 at 7:30 PM
Subject: "jive" - Word of the Day from the OED
To: OEDWOTD-AMER-L at webber.uk.hub.oup.com


OED Online Word of the Day
________________________________

jive, n.

SECOND EDITION 1989
slang (orig. U.S.).

(dav)  [Origin unknown.]

    1. Talk or conversation; spec. talk that is misleading, untrue,
empty, or pretentious; hence, anything false, worthless, or
unpleasant; vaguely, 'stuff'; = JAZZ n. 3a.

1928 R. FISHER Walls of Jericho 301 Jive, pursuit in love or any
device thereof. Usually flattery with intent to win. 1929 T. GORDON
Born to Be 236 Jive, a misleading remark. 1932 MUSE & ARLEN Way down
South 50 Thus the enamoured customer completed his meal, without ever
having taken his eyes off that tantalizing brown, with her suave
Birmingham jive. 1935 Swing Music Autumn 55/2 Maybe you think that
that is all jive. You are wrong if you do. It is the way I felt about
these new records. 1946 MEZZROW & WOLFE Really Blues iii. 37, I used
to hear a lot of medical jive. Ibid. 375 Jive n., confusing
doubletalk, pretentious conversation, anything false or phony. Jive
that makes it drip, clouds that produce rain. 1954 L. ARMSTRONG
Satchmo x. 150 There was lots of just plain common shooting and
cutting. But..that jive didn't faze me at all. Ibid. xii. 193, I
bought a lot of cheap jive at the five and ten cents store to give to
the kids. 1956 M. STEARNS Story of Jazz (1957) v. 50 The attitude of
several modern jazzmen, born and bred in the South, is striking: 'This
hoodoo jive is nowhere,' they say, 'but man, watch out!' 1960 in P.
Oliver Blues fell this Morning vii. 197 I'm evil and mean and funny,
so don't come back with that line of jive. 1972 M. J. BOSSE Incident
at Naha iii. 152 Maybe some of his Christian sentiments sound corny
today, but..he had cut through a lot of the jive of his own time, and
he had, like, the balls to fight injustice. 1973 Black World Oct. 36/2
Everything that we do must be aimed toward the total liberation,
unification and empowerment of Afrika... Anything short of that is
jive.

    2. Jazz, esp. a type of fast, lively jazz; 'swing'.

1928 (title of gramophone record by Cow Cow Davenport) State Street
Jive. 1937 New Yorker 17 Apr. 31/3 The music of hot bands..is referred
to as swing or jive, of which, in turn, there are several kinds. 1939
San Francisco News Let. 1 Sept. 12/2 Fats Waller..is the King of Jive
and gets off some fine stuff. 1946 N. & Q. 13 July 20/1 Mr. Mitchell
Parish, the American song-writer,..told me that he uses jive to
describe syncopated music played noisily, and (usually) fast, with
great emphasis on rhythm. 1959 'F. NEWTON' Jazz Scene i. 12 In
Sophiatown and the rest of the South African ghettoes the 'jive bands'
play what is patently jazz. 1960 Down Beat 9 June 15 Regarding the
word jive, Wilson said, it is nothing more than an obsolete slang term
for jazz.

    b. Lively and uninhibited dancing to dance-music or jazz; spec.
'jitterbugging'.

1943 Dancing Times Dec. 117/1 The rhythm of the Jive is not an
entirely new one. 1957 C. MACINNES City of Spades I. iv. 24 I'll teach
you..bop steps, and jive, and all. 1958 Listener 20 Nov. 848/1 Jive
and tribal dancing. 1969 H. HORWOOD Newfoundland x. 69 The jive..is
still the universal dance of..outport youngsters.

    3. A variety of American English associated with the Harlem area
of New York; slang used by American Blacks, or by jazz musicians and
their followers. Also attrib., as jive talk.

1938 C. CALLOWAY Hi De Ho 16 Jive. 1. Harlemese speech or lingo. 2. To
kid along, to blarney, to give a girl a line. 1943 Time 26 July 56/2 A
jive-talk glossary that is strictly Dracula has been put out by
Parents' Institute. 1944 D. BURLEY (title) Original handbook of Harlem
jive. 1944 E. CONRAD in Ibid. 5 Jive is one more contribution of Negro
America to the United States. Ibid. 6 Jive talk may have been
originally a kind of 'Pig Latin' that the slaves talked with each
other, a codewhen they were in the presence of whites. 1960 Time &
Tide 24 Dec. 1599/2 Jive-talk is nothing new. It goes back at least to
the thirties when for the first time a brand of jazz, swing, grew to
be a cult. Jive was originally the patois of Harlem, not jazz
musicians' slang; but with time the distinction was lost. 1965
Economist 4 Sept. 888/2 Some common American jive~words (nappy, funky)
are left out [of the Penguin English Dictionary]. 1971 Black World
June 92/2 All the rest of that jive talk about white liberals and
Rhett Butler is part of another conversation, Sam. 1971 Melody Maker
13 Nov. 31/1 That is if you forget the usual jive phrases that whittle
their way into his conversation. 1973 Times Lit. Suppl. 1 June 604/4 A
narrative tone which frequently coincides with the fast, obscene
jive-talk of his characters.

    4. Marijuana, or a cigarette containing it.

1938 Call-Bulletin (San Francisco) 19 Mar., The cigarettes are
variously called sticks, reefers, tea gyves, Mary Anns and goofy
butts. 1952 N.Y. Times 29 Apr. 25 So Diane smoked jive, pod, and tea.
1955 U.S. Senate Hearings (1956) VIII. 4168 'Sticks', 'reefers', 'jive
sticks'. 1963 'D. RUTHERFORD' Creeping Flesh ii. 124 'Jive' originally
meant marijuana. 1972 Lancet 16 Sept. 565/1 She was convinced that
only in the institution could she 'make it without jive', for she
invariably used heroin whenever she was sent home.

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