Subject: Here's JIZZ (fwd)
Date: Aug 23 10:53:03 1995
From: Dennis Paulson - dpaulson at ups.edu


This article, written by David McDonald and to be published in Australia,
seemed worth forwarding to tweeters. A little arcane but quite
interesting. Thanks, Peter.

>Date: Wed, 23 Aug 1995 09:31:12 -0700
>From: peterr at violet.berkeley.edu (Peter Rauch)
>Message-Id: <199508231631.JAA21977 at violet.berkeley.edu>
>To: dpaulson at ups.edu
>Subject: Here's JIZZ
>
>Date: Wed, 23 Aug 95 19:36:30 +1000
>From: DAVID MCDONALD <davidm at ozemail.com.au>
>Organization: OzEmail Pty Ltd
>To: peterr at violet.berkeley.edu (Peter Rauch)
>Subject: Re[1]: The Etymology of Jizz
>
>*********************************************************
>THE ETYMOLOGY OF JIZZ
>
>The word 'jizz' has been part of the language of birding, in the
>English-speaking nations, for some years. To quote some prominent
>Australian examples, Pizzey's 1983 A Field Guide to the Birds of
>Australia describes the Rose Robin Petroica rosea as having 'a
>more flycatcher-like jizz' than other red-breasted robins, and reminds
>us that the yellow robins have 'a characteristic "jizz" ... they typically
>cling sideways low on a vertical trunk or vine ...' (p. 273). The
>authoritative Handbook of Australian, New Zealand and Antarctic
>Birds (Marchant & Higgins 1990) describes the Intermediate Egret
>Ardea intermedia as having a 'less stocky jizz' than a Cattle Egret
>Ardea ibis (p. 1017). The term was also used in the 1984 Atlas of
>Australian Birds where the authors referred to '...the essential
>characteristics or "jizz" of [a] species' (Blakers, Davies & Reilly
>1984, p. xxxviii).
>
>So what, exactly, do we mean by the term 'jizz' and where does it
>come from?
>
>Meaning
>An article published in 1990 in the Newsletter of the Cumberland
>Bird Observers Club states that:
>Jizz is a relatively new addition to the terminology of bird
>identification and recognition. It is one of the characteristics
>... which enables a bird to be recognised instantly...
>Examples are GANNET - appears large at sea, long neck
>and wedge-shaped tail imparting distinctive 'pointed at both
>ends' jizz (Dymond 1990).
>
>Contrary to the view of many people that 'jizz' is a slang or jargon
>term used exclusively and loosely by birders, or one which really
>belongs in another world such as that of the military, jizz is found in
>basic references, such as the Handbook referred to above and in
>ornithological dictionaries. For example, A Dictionary of Birds by
>Campbell and Lack (1985) defines jizz as: 'A combination of
>characteristics which identify a living creature in the field, but which
>may not be distinguished individually' (p. 313). The glossary in
>Simpson and Day's (1993) Field Guide to the Birds of Australia
>defines jizz as 'A word used by "twitchers" - avid birdwatchers - to
>describe everything about a bird in one, all-embracing term; the
>essence or "character" of a bird in the field' (p. 379).
>
>The Second Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary (1989, p.
>264) provides the following definition: 'The characteristic
>impression given by an animal or plant', and this definition is carried
>across to more readily accessible editions of the OED such as the
>Australian Concise Oxford Dictionary.
>
>Origin
>Where does 'jizz' come from?
>
>Dymond (1990) suggested that:
> 'Jizz is a term derived from the fighter pilots' acronym, GIS
>- General Impression and Shape...'.
>
>Wallace (1994) had a different view, stating that it comes from the
>WW2 acronym GIS which stood for 'General Identification System'.
>
>Litwin (1994) went straight to the point, saying that:
> ... I thought 'jizz' was a contraction from 'just is'.
>
>Danca (1994) came from a different angle altogether. He suggested
>that jizz:
> ... comes from a corrupted shortening of the word 'gestalt'
>mispronounced with a soft G as in 'jestalt'. The term jestalt
>has been the common element in defining jizz in nearly all
>the guesses that have appeared [in the 1994 Birdchat
>discussion].
>
>That whole 'general impression of size and shape [or
>whatever]' origin sounds just too neat. It feels like (and
>probably is) a back-construction from someone who invented
>words to go with what he thought was an acronym. Besides,
>GISS would be pronounced 'jiss', not 'jizz' (or 'gizz'). Folks, I
>think we have an urban legend here with *this* derivation. I
>still vote for the 'jestalt' origins.
>
>Principe (1994) points to support for the 'gestalt' origin. He reminds
>us that Danca's view:
>... is supported by Christopher Leahy in his book (The
>Birdwatcher's Companion Bonanza Books, 1982). He says
>'A distinctive physical "attitude", totally apart from any
>specific field mark ... The origin of the term is uncertain;
>perhaps a corruption of "gestalt"'.
>
>('Gestalt' is a term used most commonly in psychology, meaning 'a
>configuration or figure whose integration differs from the totality
>obtained from summing the parts' (Wolman 1989, p. 146)).
>
>In fact, as evidenced by contributions to the Internet discussion list
>Birdchat in 1994 from which some of the above quotations are
>taken, and from a number of personal conversations, the most
>commonly accepted origin of the word jizz is, as Dymond suggests,
>the Second World War acronym concerned with the identification of
>aircraft, both friendly and enemy. Most commonly, however, jizz is
>understood to have come not from GIS (as Dymond suggested) but
>from GISS, a contraction of General Impression of Size and Shape.
>This explanation is found throughout the birding literature.
>
>Some birders seem convinced of this origin. Mackiernan (1994) is
>one of these:
>Nevertheless -- this from RAF person who is a birder --
>'GIZZ' does come from
>the 'general impression, shape and size' rule from aircraft
>sighting.
>
>And I think the Brits tend to be pretty effective gizz (or jizz)
>birders.
>
>Kloot (1995) provides a fuller explanation of GISS:
>During World War 2, pilots and their crew were briefed as to
>how to swiftly identify various aircraft, both the enemy's, and
>their own.
>
>In combat there was not time to reach for, and consult a
>manual, so images of planes were flashed onto a screen, and
>the pilots and crew were required to instantly recognize their
>features, contours and size; in fact, to gauge the 'General
>Impression of Shape and Size' of every known aircraft. So,
>General Impression of Shape and Size became 'GISS'.
>
>And from 'GISS' came 'Jizz'.
>
>In her article, Kloot acknowledges an English birding colleague as
>the source of this information. I have contacted him and he
>responded, writing:
>I'm sorry to have to disappoint you, but I'm afraid that I can
>provide you with no new information regarding the origin of
>the term. ...the explanation [which he gave to Kloot and she
>published] is really no more than part of birding folklore and
>gains more credence with each act of repetition (Smith 1995,
>pers. comm.)
>
>An approach to the Australian Department of Defence, Air Force
>Office, Royal Australian Air Force Historical Records and
>Information Services, was unsuccessful in locating any corroboration
>of the use of the GISS acronym. A similar approach to the United
>Kingdom Ministry of Defence's Air Historical Branch (RAF) met
>with the same negative result.
>
>On a personal note I, too, have always believed that jizz came from
>the Second World War's GISS. Indeed, I have a vague recollection
>that, as an Australian serviceman in the 1960s, I learned the term in
>the context of aircraft recognition and only met it again when I came
>to birding in more recent years. (Unfortunately this recollection is
>very foggy.)
>
>On Smith's suggestion I turned to the 1990 book Birds by
>Character: A Field Guide to Jizz Identification (Hume, 1990). It is
>an excellent guide to the birds of Britain and Europe but neither
>defines jizz nor discusses its etymology. The author (who is
>associated with the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and is
>the editor of Birds) has indicated to me in correspondence that, in
>his opinion, while the GISS idea sounds plausible, it is more likely to
>be incorrect.
>
>Having reached this point in the etymological detective story you
>may feel like giving up. Do not! Both Lack and Campbell's A
>Dictionary of Birds (1985) and the OED (1989) provide a quite
>different source for the origin of jizz. They refer us to a book by T.
>A. Coward, published in London in 1922, titled Bird Haunts &
>Nature Memories. This is what Coward wrote (as quoted in the
>OED, p. 246; page numbers in the quotation are references to
>Coward):
>A West Coast Irishman was familiar with the wild creatures
>which dwelt on or visited his rocks and shores; at a glance he
>could name them, usually correctly, but if asked how he
>knew them would reply 'By their "jizz".' What is jizz?.. We
>have not coined it, but how wide its use in Ireland is we
>cannot say... Jizz may be applied to or possessed by any
>animate and some inanimate objects, yet we cannot clearly
>define it. A single character may supply it, or it may be the
>combination of many (p. 141).
>
>... Jizz, of course, is not confined to birds. The small
>mammal and the plant alike have jizz (p. 143)
>
>So, here we have it. Jizz long predates the Second World War but
>was used in the early part of the century, at least on the West Coast
>of Ireland, with the same meaning we now give to it in birding and
>with the same meaning as that captured by the GISS acronym.
>
>Two tasks remain. The first is to find out if GISS, General
>Impression of Size and Shape, was in fact used in WW2. I have
>nothing further to add on this topic; I have found no evidence that it
>was. The second task is to find the origin of the West Coast
>Irishman's word jizz.
>
>The etymology of jizz
>The OED (1989, p. 246) states that the etymology of jizz is
>unknown. It points to the similarly-sounding and similarly-meaning
>word guise, which it gives the meaning 'manner of carrying oneself;
>behaviour, carriage, conduct, course of life'. It points out that guise
>'is coincident in sense but the phonetic relationship remains
>unexplained and the two words may therefore be unrelated'.
>
>Before concluding, let me intrude just one more intriguing fact (or
>clue?) into the puzzle. Partridge's (1984, p. 419) A Dictionary of
>Slang and Unconventional English includes the word 'gizz', defining
>it as:
>A face: Scot.: C. 19. (EDD.)
>Perhaps influenced by phiz, but certainly derived from guise
>(a mask), of which it once formed a var[iant].
> (Note: 'EDD' is Joseph Wright's 1898-1905 The English Dialect
>Dictionary.)
>
>Phiz (or phizz), according to Partridge (1984, p. 874), was an
>Eighteenth Century jocular, colloquial abbreviation of 'physiognomy'
>and meant a 'face; expression of face'.
>
>We are left with a number of loose ends. One is the possibility of
>links between:
>(a) the Nineteenth Century Scottish word 'gizz' (a face);
>(b) the Eighteenth Century word 'phiz' or 'phizz' (face,
>expression of face);
>(c) Coward's West Coast Irishman's 'jizz' (the characteristic
>impression given by an animal or plant); and, perhaps
>(d) gestalt, the German word used in contemporary English-
>language psychology with the meaning that the whole is
>different from the sum of the parts.
>
>The lack of resolution of this puzzle provides a challenge to readers
>to take the etymological detective work somewhat further.
>
>References
>
>Blakers, M., Davies, S. & Reilly, P. (1984) Atlas of Australian
>Birds, Melbourne Univ. Press, Melbourne.
>
>Campbell, B. & Lack, E. (eds) (1985) A Dictionary of Birds,
>Poyser, Calton.
>
>Coward, T. (1922) Bird Haunts & Nature Memories, London, np.
>
>Danca, R. (15 November 1994) Jizz =.'Gestalt'?, BirdChat [Online],
>available e-mail: BIRDCHAT
> at ARIZVM1.CCIT.ARIZONA.EDU).
>
>Dymond, T. (1990) Newsletter, Cumberland Bird Observers Club,
>vol.11, no. 5, p. 9.
>
>Hume, R. (1990) Birds by Character: A Field Guide to Jizz
>Identification, Papermac, London.
>
>Kloot, T. (1995) 'The "Jizz" of a Bird', The Bird Observer, no. 750,
>March.
>
>Litwin, N. (13 November 1994) Re: jizz, BirdChat [Online],
>available e-mail: BIRDCHAT
> at ARIZVM1.CCIT.ARIZONA.EDU).
>
>Mackiernan, G. (15 November 1994) Re: Jizz = "Gestalt"?,
>BirdChat [Online], available e-mail: BIRDCHAT
> at ARIZVM1.CCIT.ARIZONA.EDU).
>
>Marchant, S. & Higgins, P. (1990) Handbook of Australian, New
>Zealand and Antarctic Birds, Vol. 1, OUP, Melbourne.
>
>Oxford English Dictionary (1989), second edition, Clarenden Press,
>Oxford.
>
>Partridge, E. (1984) A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional
>English, eighth edn, ed. Paul Beale, Routledge & Kegan Paul,
>London.
>
>Pizzey, G. (1983) A Field Guide to the Birds of Australia, Collins,
>Sydney.
>
>Principe, B. (15 November 1994) Re: Jizz = "Gestalt"?, BirdChat
>[Online], available e-mail: BIRDCHAT
> at ARIZVM1.CCIT.ARIZONA.EDU).
>
>Simpson, K. & Day, N. (1993) Field Guide to the Birds of
>Australia, Viking O'Neil, Ringwood.
>
>Wallace, J. (11 November 1994) Re: jizz, BirdChat [Online],
>available e-mail: BIRDCHAT
> at ARIZVM1.CCIT.ARIZONA.EDU).
>
>Wolman, B. (ed.) (1989) Dictionary of Behavioral Science, second
>edition, Academic Press, San Diego.
>
>________________________________________________________________
>David McDonald Voice: +61-6-231 8904 (home)
>PO Box 1355 Voice: +61-6-274 0200 (work)
>WODEN ACT 2606 Facsimile: +61-6-274 0201 (work)
>AUSTRALIA E-mail: davidm at ozemail.com.au (home)
> E-mail: davidm at aic.act.crime.oz.au (work)
>_________________________________________________________________
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>

Dennis Paulson, Director phone: (206) 756-3798
Slater Museum of Natural History fax: (206) 756-3352
University of Puget Sound e-mail: dpaulson at ups.edu
Tacoma, WA 98416