Where did your favorite four-letter-word "Jazz" come from? Not where you think!
When it comes to the origin of the word “jazz,” it seems that each person simply believes what she or he wants to. Some people would like the word to come from Africa, so they firmly believe the stories that support that. Others want it to be an African American word, so they look for that. But professional linguists have been on the case for decades, and the real story is a lot less black and white.
The BOTTOM LINES in this discussion are:
1. Nobody knows for sure the etymology of the word “jazz”!! (Even the professionals have not found an earlier word or words, from English or any other language, that “morphed” into the word “jazz.”) However it might (please remember—“might,” not definitely) come from a slang word, “jasm” (more on that later).
2. The word does not appear to have been invented by African Americans and is not from New Orleans. It seems to have originated among white people (European Americans), and the earliest printed uses of it are in California baseball writing, where it means “lively, energetic.” (Note: The word still has this meaning, as in “Let’s jazz this up”!) The earliest one yet found was in 1912, as you can see below. This text was discovered by researcher George A. Thompson, and sent courtesy of etymologist Professor Gerald Cohen.
3. Whites started to call the new music “jazz” in Chicago (and possibly California) in 1915. Because it was a new word, and it was slang, spellings varied at first (jazz, jas, jaz, jass, jasz), but since 1918 it has been “jazz.”
4. White people meant the word “jazz” as a compliment (meaning that the music was lively and exciting), not an insult!