The Irish Gaelic Jazz (Teas, jass, Heat) of Fizz, Fizzle, and Sizzle

Like a lexical star the Irish and Scots Gaelic fizz and fizzle are perpetually losing their Teas (pron. jass), heat, excitement, and high spirit.

Fizz
Fé theas, fa theas (pron. fay has; the aspirated "t" is silent)
Less than highest heat, warmth, passion, excitement, or ardor.

Fé, Fá, faoi : less than, under (in all senses), low.

Teas (aspirated to "theas," pron. has). heat, hotness, warmth, degree of hotness, high temperature, passion, excitement, ardor, fever. Hottest, highest stage.

All fizz is a fizzle. Fizzle fizzes forever.

Fizzle
Fé theas uile (pron. fay has ila)
Less than all heat, vigor, passion, ardor, or excitement.

Fé, Fá, faoi : less than, under (in all senses), low
Theas, (pron. has), heat, vigor, passion, ardor, or excitement
Uile: all, wholly.


Fizzles’s high spirited cousin is Sizzle.

With the etymology of sizzle the Barnhart dictionary again opts for "imitative."

Sizzle. . . to make a hissing sound as fat does when frying. 1603, to burn or scorch so as to produce a hissing sound; perhaps a frequentative verb form of Middle English sissen make a hissing sound, buzz (before 1300), of imitative origin. The sense of making a hissing sound when frying is first recorded. in English before 1825. n. 1823, inn Edward Moor’s Suffolk Words and Phrases; from the verb. (Barnhart, p. 1913)

Like a verbal star, the Irish and Scots-Gaelic Sizzle (sa theas uile) holds at its core the perpetual heat, passion, excitement, and ardor of Teas (jass, heat.) Even though it is aspirated here, the Irish word Theas (pron. has, Heat) still means “passion and excitement” in Irish.

Sizzle
Sa theas uile (pron. sa has ila ; "th" is aspirated to "h")
In a state of all heat, highest temperature, excitement, passion, ardor.

Sa: In (a state or condition of)
Theas (pron. has): heat, vigor, passion, ardor, or excitement.
Uile: all, whole.

The Sizzle of Teas (pron. jass) holds the spirit of jazz and gives off heat even when it fizzles.

On the other hand when you easy fry chicken you don't sizzle it, you fricasee (friocadh sámh. pron. fricah sah) or easy fry the boid (bird.)

Friocadh (pron fricah): frying
Sámh (pron sah), easy.

Fricasee
Friocadh sámh
Easy frying. Not fizzling or sizzling.

And that's my Razzmatazz (Rois mórtais)

Daniel Cassidy

If memory serves me correct, there is about one or two sentences in Ken Burns' "Jazz" that offers one possiblity of the etymology as "deas" coming from the Irish Americans of New Orleans, who weren't welcome in the white clubs at the time.

Jazz was apparently originally called "Jass Music" and the documentary had the photos of the bands' signage to prove it. It also appears that while the first bands were black, the term originated with their white (eg, Irish-American) audience and was subsequently adopted by the bands to classify themselves. it was unclear whether it was the white bands imitating the original black bands that got the ball rolling on the adoption of the term or not, and the etymology given was said to be just as questionable as all the others for the mysterious word, no more, no less.

je parle français, et je dois être en désaccord avec votre prendre le «fricasée»

oui oui, légèrement Cajun, non ?

the lining up of various sounds suggests a skill in sound non the less, and interesting even if the ethymology is not verifiable in the absolute

I have little doubt that there's something to what he says in principle. English has picked up numerous words through immigration to the US and colonization by the UK. Ireland was the closest of all englands colonies as well as a neighboring culture from before britain spoke english at all. In addition, the Irish have been one of the largest and most contributing groups to immigrate to the US. I see no reason why there should not be numerous Gaeilge-English contributions, unrecorded due to age or politics.

I don't know that any of his specific examples hold water, but i'm sure there's stuff you won't find credited in the dictionary.

gin-i-ker which is the english phonetic straitjacket for tine a chur is the synonym for the hot new word "jazz" used by "scoop" gleeson in his sports column in sf bulletin in march 1913.

all of the first published source material on the hot new words jazz and jass was collected by the venerable peter tamony, who was the keeper of the "irish clans" lore in san francisco 1905-1985. tamony's papers are at univ. of missouri. he had no irish.

all those sports reporters and musicians using the word jazz or jass (teas) from its first published appearance on march 3, 1913 in sf bulletin through bert kelly's san francisco "JASS" band in chicago ca. 1915 are irish americans.

an alternative source of jazz is given as the older slang terms "jasm" or "gism" meaning a huge amount of energy and passion, which is of course teas ioma. one has to read the wingut etymologies for jasm (teas ioma) to believ them. everything from african to old saxon. but iron law of american and enlgish etymology is that there is no irish in american english,. that's baloney. there are literally 1,000s of irish and gaelic words alive in american slang, colloquialism, regional and class dialect, monikers, place names, specialized jargons like gambling, etc. it was a key strand of the tongue of the so called "underworld."

art hickman's san francisco jazz orchestra was the first to call itself a "jazz" band in 1914. hickman was at the boyes' hot spring training camp of the SF Seals baseball team where the boys used the word "jazz" to describe the water from the hot springs, for which boyes hot springs is still famous out here in northern california today. the teas of the heat of the hot springs is brigid's teas. the fire (tine a chur) she set in late 5th century never went out.

the first band to call its music "rag" or "ragged" music was irish "papa jack" laine's integrated reliance band in new orleans. jazz aint deas (nice) its teasai/ (jazzy) hot.

scoop gleeson uses many irish words like glom and glommer for gla/m, etc. i am still translating the so called "slang" from his columns this week. he was a young irish american journalist whose family were irish speakers. 30% of san francisco was irish or irish american ca. 1913. new orleans was 14% african american (half free), 14% irish BORN in 1860. again the irish language influence on san francisco, new orleans, and nyc speech was ENORMOUS and has been totally ignored by anglo-saxonist etymologists to this day. racism and hibernophobia in academic discourse ain't dead. but teas (jass, heat) is gonna' boin (burn) it up in ragtime.

to see more put "sanas of jazz" into google. this sanas of jazz and teas just went up on a major american dialect site used by educators. I have been working closely with native irish speakers and traveller-cant speakers and language scholars in ireland on teas (jazz) and tine a chur (gin-i-ker.

I've just had a revelation! "Goofy" comes from "gabh faoi"!

Hi All,

To read the sanas of Jazz by Dan Cassidy go to:

The Educational CyberPlayGround
http://www.edu-cyberpg.com

Linguistics
http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Linguistics/Home_Linguistics.html

Look at Irish American Vernacular English
http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Linguistics/irish.html
Jazz Etymology: Irish American Vernacular English and
the hidden influence of Irish and Scots-Gaelic on what we call American English

Karen Ellis

Here is the more direct link:
http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Linguistics/irish.html