"Cool" and "spaz" in 1965 - alt.usage.english

Message from discussion "Cool" and "spaz" in 1965

Joe Fineman

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More options Jun 25 2005, 10:09 am

Newsgroups: alt.usage.english

From: Joe Fineman <jo...@verizon.net>

Date: Sat, 25 Jun 2005 14:09:56 GMT

Local: Sat, Jun 25 2005 10:09 am

Subject: Re: "Cool" and "spaz" in 1965

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Ben Zimmer <bgzim...@midway.uchicago.edu> writes:
> If it meant anything at all to Dad, it surely meant "spastic" (i.e.,
> uncoordinated). But because this sense of "spaz(z)" was considered
> too offensive to be used in print in the '50s and early '60s, we
> don't yet have any documentation of its use (beyond people's
> memories) before that tasteless song of 1967. By that time the
> secondary "uncool" sense had developed as well (though this sense
> didn't seem to have much staying power).

Here, FWIW, is the entry in my journal (1956) from a section on the
language of Caltech students:

SPAZ, n.R (shortened from _spastic_) 1. _Obsolete._ A person
lacking in the common social skills & virtues. See TWITCH. 2.
To surprise a person in a way that causes him to take some time to
react. v.R

The "R" means "regional or national" -- i.e., I was aware at the time
that this was not just Caltech slang. The noun was, of course,
obsolete only at Caltech, where it had been replaced by the allusive
"twitch".
--
--- Joe Fineman jo...@verizon.net

||: Quotation marks & car horns are warning signals that are :||
||: used by the vulgar to express their emotions. :||

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