Since Dennis forwarded David McDonald's fascinating piece of sleuthing on
the origins of "jizz," I've exchanged e-mails with David - and Dennis
thought TWEETERS might like a copy. I decided originally that too few
people would be interested in a long commentary on a long commentary on a
matter related to birding only through etymology - but for those of you
who actually read D. McD.'s article to the end, here's the contribution
of an "ear-witness" to a debate that shouldn't be one. For the rest: it
would be to your advantage to hit the "D" key now.

James West

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 23 Aug 1995 13:20:53 -0700 (PDT)
From: James West <jdwest at u.washington.edu>
To: davidm at ozemail.com.au
Cc: Dennis Paulson <dpaulson at ups.edu>
Subject: The origin of "jizz" ...


Dennis Paulson recently fowarded your forthcoming piece on the origins of
the term "jizz" - fascinating, and very well researched. May I add an
observation? My background: I am English (despite the address), a
life-long birdwatcher, I am old enough to remember the war, I served in
the Royal Air Force in the '50s, and I am a linguist by profession.

First two linguistic observations. Etymological enquiries are often
clouded by failure to take account of two important considerations:

- The sociolinguistic factor: for a term to gain currency in a language,
there has to be at some time a widespread fashion for its use, however
short-lived that fashion may be.

- The phenomenon of "convergence" or "conflation" - two different usages
may merge, for a variety of reasons that include phonetic similarity,
rhyme or alliteration, and even, ironically, the pressure of false
etymology.

The term "jizz" came into use while I was growing up - I watched it catch
on, if you like. There isn't any doubt that it comes in the first place
from GISS. This was a Royal Air Force term, but what gave it the wide
currency was the Royal Observer Corps, a vast nationwide organization of
volunteer aircraft spotters trained to detect the approach of enemy
aircraft and report them. This made the abbreviation of the term "General
Impression of Size and Shape" a household word in Britain - and that's the
crucial sociolinguistic factor. In the second place, once GISS had become
commonplace, even among people who couldn't tell you what it stood for, it
naturally became "assimilated" by analogy with other colloquial English
words. From its commonness in the English of my youth, I suspect that the
likeliest assimilation cognate is the word "phizz" (derives from
"physiognomy" and means "face,"or "look" in the sense of "general
appearance") and (rather than "or") the "gizz" with this meaning suggested
by the OED. The extension of the use of the word to bird identification
was natural - and it stayed in use among birdwatchers when the spotting of
Axis aircraft became a concern of the past. The Irish west-coast "jizz" is
fascinating, and could conceivably have been an assimilation cognate among
the Irish living in England (of whom there were many in the larger
industrial cities, which were the strongholds of the Royal Observer Corps
- they were the bombing targets!), but it's simply too esoteric to be
plausible as the single origin of so widespread a term. Besides - I and
many other Brits of that vintage watched GISS become "jizz" in something
like the manner I've described.

___________________________________________________________________
JAMES WEST University of Washington, Box 353580, Seattle, WA 98195
Tel: 206-543-4829 Fax: 206-543-6009 E-mail: jdwest at u.washington.edu