phrases, sayings, idioms and expressions at

jitters

Posted by Baceseras on September 08, 2009 at 13:55

In Reply to: Heebie jeebies posted by ESC on September 06, 2009 at 12:54:

: : As a former undergraduate psychology major, I was taught that the phrase "heebie jeebies" was a way of describing the behavior associated with Hebephrenic Schizophrenia. This sub-type of schizophrenia was named after the Greek goddess of youth, Hebe, due to the early onset of the disease in young adults.

: Merriam-Webster online:
: Pronunciation: "hE-bE-'jE-bEz
: Function: noun plural
: Etymology: coined by Billy DeBeck died 1942 American cartoonist
: Date: 1923
: JITTERS, CREEPS

: Another source dates it to 1910 and says it was "popularized and probably coined by cartoonist William de Beck in his comic strip 'Barney Google.'" Listening to America: An Illustrated History of Words and Phrases from Our Lively and Splendid Past by Stuart Berg Flexner (Simon and Schuster, New York, 1982). Page 91. Maybe de Beck took a psych class or two?
: "Flappers 2 Rappers: American Youth Slang" by Tom Dalzell (Merriam-Webster Inc., Springfield, Md., 1996), Page 15, places the expression during the 1920s flapper era. "After the stock market crash of 1929, 'jitters' replaced heebie-jeebies' as the slang expression of choice to convey extreme anxiety. Where 'jitters' came from is anyone's guess, but the supposition that it resulted from a spoonerism of gin and bitters (thus bin and gitters) and was thus applied to a state of alcoholism is as good a theory as any since 'jittersauce' was an established euphemism for alcohol during the Prohibition." Page 38.

: And NOW I'm going to hear Little Richard singing Heeby-Jeebies all day: www.amazon.com/ Heres-Little-Richard/dp/B000GCG63W

[The OED says "origin unknown" of 'jitters' - but as a "supposition" the gin-and-bitters connection seems much too clever. Simpler to note that in the 1920s (and possibly earlier) "judder" was a frequent American vernacular form of "shudder," and from judder to jitter is an easy twitch of the playful American tongue. - Baceseras.]

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