Home Original page

jazz - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

Unknown. First attested around 1912 in a discussion of baseball; attested in reference to music around 1915. Numerous references suggest that the term may be connected to jasm and jism.[1]

jazz (usually uncountable, plural jazzes)

A jazz band, The King & Carter Jazzing Orchestra, in 1921.
  1. (music) A musical art form rooted in West African cultural and musical expression and in the African American blues tradition, with diverse influences over time, commonly characterized by blue notes, syncopation, swing, call and response, polyrhythms and improvisation.

    • 1927, Samson Raphaelson, Alfred A. Cohn, The Jazz Singer, spoken by Jakie Rabinowitz (Al Jolson):

      You dare to bring your jazz songs into my house!

    • 1946, Milton “Mezz” Mezzrow, Bernard Wolfe, “Not too Far Tangent”, in Really the Blues, New York, N.Y.: Random House, book 1 (1899–1923: A Nothin’ but a Child), page 30:

      You all look out now, here I come, everybody step aside, I’m gonna show you where from! I'm gonna blow in this horn and make you know that jazz is the king and let it be so!

    • 1995 April 30, Mike Reiss, Al Jean, “'Round Springfield”, in The Simpsons, season 6, episode 22, spoken by Bill Cosby (Dan Castellaneta):

      You see, the kids, they listen to the rap music which gives them the brain damage. With their hippin', and the hoppin', and the bippin', and the boppin', so they don't know what the jazz…is all about! You see, jazz is like the Jello Pudding Pop—no, actually, it's more like Kodak film—no, actually, jazz is like the New Coke: it'll be around forever, heh heh.

  2. (figurative) Energy, excitement, excitability.
  4. The substance or makeup of a thing; unspecified thing(s).
    Synonyms: stuff; see also Thesaurus:junk, Thesaurus:thingy
    and all that jazz

    What is all this jazz lying around?

    I'm just going down to the shops and jazz.

    • 1975, Garry Marshall et al., “Richie's Flip Side”, in Happy Days, season 2, episode 21, spoken by Richie Cunningham (Ron Howard):

      Dad, I want to be a jock. All a jock needs is some hep patter and a real gone image. Now, they just don't teach that jazz in college.

  5. (with positive terms) Something of excellent quality, the genuine article.

    That show was the jazz!

    This risotto is simply the jazz.

  6. Nonsense.
    Synonyms: rubbish, wass; see also Thesaurus:nonsense

    Stop talking jazz.

  7. (slang) Semen, jizz.

    • 1968, Len Harrington, In drag, page 7:

      Suddenly, Bobby oozed his jazz into Gene's throat.

    • 1974, Peter Pepper, Meatslinger, page 141:

      […] making Glenn feel as though he could never stop shooting his jazz wildly up inside the man's brawny body!

    • 2018, Bert Shrader, A Gay Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum:

      As he clung to the legs of his captor, he splayed his own out to the side, baring his groin and genitals to the eyes of all just as his jazz began to spurt out onto the stage.

  8. A red-skinned variety of eating apple.

musical art form

the (in)tangible substance that goes into the makeup of a thing; unspecified thing(s)

of excellent quality, the genuine article

nonsense

Translations to be checked

jazz (third-person singular simple present jazzes, present participle jazzing, simple past and past participle jazzed)

  1. (slang) To destroy; to ruin.

    You’ve gone and jazzed it now!

  2. To play (jazz music).
  3. To dance to the tunes of jazz music.
  4. To enliven, brighten up, make more colourful or exciting. (Can we add an example for this sense?)
  5. (slang) To complicate. (Can we add an example for this sense?)

    Don’t jazz it too much!

  6. (intransitive, US slang, dated) To have sex for money, to prostitute oneself.

    • 1931, William Faulkner, Sanctuary, Vintage, published 1993, page 59:

      ‘Jazzing?’ Temple whispered […] . ‘Yes, putty-face!’ the woman said. ‘How do you suppose I paid that lawyer?’

  7. (intransitive, slang) To move (around/about) in a lively or frivolous manner; to fool around. [from 20th c.]

    • 1923, Agatha Christie, The Murder on the Links:

      I have no patience with the modern neurotic girl who jazzes from morning to night, smokes like a chimney, and uses language which would make a Billingsgate fishwoman blush!

    • 1928, Dorothy L. Sayers, The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club‎[1]:

      "In the old days, heaps of unmarried women were companions, and let me tell you, my dear girl, they had a much better time than they have now, with all this jazzing and short skirts and pretending to have careers. The modern girl hasn't a scrap of decent feeling or sentiment about her. Money--money and notoriety, that's all she's after. That's what we fought the war for--and that's what we've come back to!" "George, do keep to the point. Miss Dorland doesn't jazz--"

    • 1958, Doris Lessing, A Ripple From the Storm, HarperPerennial, published 1995, page 119:

      ‘Well, if you're going to jazz about the way you do, I suppose you'll need rouge at your age.’

  8. (slang, transitive) To distract or pester.

    Stop jazzing me!

  9. (slang) To ejaculate.

    • 1982, Arthur Winfield Knight, Kit Knight, Beat angels, page 7:

      Twenty-four black men jazzed madly as trumpets exploded her eardrums in tom-tom time. Ebony orgasm flooded her with creme.

    • 1986, Winston Leyland, Hard, page 84:

      The thrill of the rimming soon made this guy beg for me to stop before he jazzed his nuts.

    • 1988, First Hand - Volume 8, Issue 2, page 47:

      I reached around and began jacking off Marshall's prick as I was jazzing his ass.

  1. ^ The Concise New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, 2014, →ISBN says that most authorities derive it from jasm, a variant of jism. Partridge also says it was first recorded in reference to music in a 1917 Chicago Tribune advertisement for "Bert Kelly's Jaz [sic] Band", having previously been used in baseball.

Borrowed from English jazz.

jazz m (invariable)

  1. jazz

Borrowed from English jazz.

jazz m inan

  1. jazz

Borrowed from English jazz.

jazz m (definite singular jazzen)

  1. (uncountable) jazz (form of music)

Unadapted borrowing from English jazz.

  • IPA(key): /dʒɛz/, /dʒɛs/
  • Hyphenation: jazz
  • Rhymes: -ɛs

jazz m (uncountable, no diminutive)

  1. jazz

Borrowed from English jazz.

  • IPA(key): /ˈjɑts/, [ˈjɑ̝ts̠]
  • IPA(key): /ˈdʒæz/, [ˈdʒæz]
  • Rhymes: -ɑts
  • Syllabification(key): jazz
  • Hyphenation(key): jazz

jazz

  1. jazz (style of music)

Borrowed from English jazz. The compound jazband is attested in a 1918 copy of Le Matin.

jazz m (uncountable)

  1. (music) jazz (music style)

Borrowed from English jazz.

jazz m (uncountable)

  1. (music) jazz

jazz (invariable)

  1. (relational) jazz
    Synonym: jazzistico
  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 jazz in Luciano Canepari, Dizionario di Pronuncia Italiana (DiPI)
  • jazz in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana

Borrowed from English jazz.

jazz m (definite singular jazzen)

  1. (uncountable) jazz (form of music)

Borrowed from English jazz.

jazz m (definite singular jazzen)

  1. (uncountable) jazz (form of music)

Unadapted borrowing from English jazz.

  • IPA(key): /ˈd͡ʐɛs/
  • Rhymes: -ɛs
  • Syllabification: jazz

jazz m inan (related adjective jazzowy)

  1. jazz
  2. (slang) marijuana
    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:marihuana

    • 2011, Firma, [], “JaraMy” (track 20), in Nasza broń to nasza pasja, performed by Firma:

      Śmiech, relaks i spokój w każdym machu / rozpoznam kozaka po wyglądzie i zapachu / śpię po tym jak dziecko i śmieje się do łez / mniej szkodliwe to niż wóda, zalegalizujcie jazz!

      Laughter, relaxation, and peace with every toke / I can tell a badass by the way he looks / it makes me sleep like a baby and I laugh til I cry / it's less harmful than vodka, legalize hash!
  • jazz in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
  • jazz in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Unadapted borrowing from English jazz.

jazz m (uncountable)

  1. (music) jazz (musical genre that emerged in the early 20th century in the United States of America, resulting from the fusion of elements from different musical traditions)

    • 2010, Ricardo da Mata, O Mundo Lá Fora, Clube de Autores, page 199:

      Que é isso? Uma rádio tocando jazz de manhã e prometendo tocar música erudita na sequência? Só pode ser piada ou estou sonhando ainda!

      What is this? A radio playing jazz in the morning and promising to play classical next? It can only be a joke, or I am still dreaming!

Borrowed from English jazz or French jazz.

jazz n (uncountable)

  1. (music) jazz (music style)

Unadapted borrowing from English jazz.

jazz m (uncountable)

  1. jazz

According to Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) prescriptions, unadapted foreign words should be written in italics in a text printed in roman type, and vice versa, and in quotation marks in a manuscript text or when italics are not available. In practice, this RAE prescription is not always followed.

jazz c

  1. (music) jazz