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Friday, January 20, 2006

Slang Primer No. 6

Herewith the sixth in an ongoing series of entries on slang, this one drawn from Robert L. Chapman's marvelous "Dictionary of American Slang (Third Edition)."
JIVE
(1) verb: Black by 1938: To banter, jest, tease "She told him to quit jiving" (2) verb: By 1928: To deceive, but not seriously; mislead, especially playfully (3) noun: By 1929: Empty and pretentious talk; foolishness "Sugar Mouth Sammy with the same ol' tired jive" -- D. Evans " . . . male chauvinist, damsel in distress, and all that jive" -- Village Voice (4) noun: By about 1920: Trifles, trash "I bought a lot of cheap jive at the five and ten cent store" -- Louis Armstrong (5) noun: By 1928: Swing music of the 1930s and '40s, especially as played by the big bands and played fast and excitingly "Man, what a solid jive" -- Max Shulman (6) verb: By 1938: To play or dance fast, exciting swing music (7) noun: (also gyve) By 1938: Marijuana or a marijuana cigarette "So Diane smoked jive, pot and tea" -- Orville Prescott

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