By Farooq A. Kperogi, Ph.D. Jitters. The English language owes this alternative word for nervousness to an African language, accordi...
By Farooq A. Kperogi, Ph.D.
Jitters.
The English language owes this
alternative word for nervousness to an African language, according to Holloway
and Vass who trace it to “ji-to,” a
Mandingo word that, according to them, means “frightened, cowardly.” I initially thought the authors’ evidence for
the African origin of this word was at best tentative and at worst accidental,
but after consulting other authorities, I think they have a strong case.
The Oxford
English Dictionary says the word is “of unknown origin” and dates its
appearance in the English language to the 1920s. The Online Etymology
Dictionary doesn’t suggest a root for the word. It only says it began as an American
English word in 1931. Only the Random
House Dictionary traces the word’s roots to Middle English; it says it’s a
variation of “chiteren,” but dates
the emergence of “jitters” in English to between 1920 and 1925. That’s an
implausible proposition.
First, a word that has roots in Middle English (that
is, between 1100 and 1450) should have a longer history in the language than
the 1920s. Second, the authoritative Middle English Dictionary Volume 5 (published by
the University of Michigan Press in 1998)
disproves the Random House Dictionary’s
etymology of “jitters.” None of the meanings of “chiteren” given in the Middle
English Dictionary corresponds to the contemporary meaning of
“jitters.” The two meanings of “chiteren” in the dictionary are “of
birds: to twitter, chatter” and “of persons:
(a) to jabber, talk idly; (b) to mumble or say (a prayer).”
However, the Middle
English Dictionary does give the meaning of a different word, chiveren (also chivever or chievere),
that corresponds to the contemporary meaning of “jitters.” But it says this
word (or its many variations) is the lexical progenitor of “shiver,” not “jitters.”
So it seems entirely reasonable that “jitters” evolved from the
Mandingo “ji-to.” The fact that the
word was initially a uniquely American English word redounds to this theory.
Phony
or phoney. This word used to be a peculiarly American English
word for “fake.” But it now enjoys wide currency in international English.
Holloway and Vass etymologized this word as having roots in “fani” or “foni,” a Mandingo word that means “(to be) false, valueless….Counterfeit,
sham, something false or valueless,” according to Holloway and Vass.
The Oxford
English Dictionary states that the origin of “phony” is uncertain but
admits that it emerged in American English in the late 19th century.
The Online Etymology Dictionary, for its part, says it’s “perhaps an alteration
of fawney, itself a corruption of the
Irish “fainne,” defined as a
"gilt brass ring used by swindlers."
When I put both etymologies on a scale, I am more
inclined to believe the theory of a Mandingo origin of “phony” than the Online
Etymology Dictionary’s history of the word’s origins.
Ruckus.
Like hullaballoo from last week, ruckus means a noisy disturbance. Holloway and
Vass say the word is derived from the Bantu “lukashi,” which they say is “sound of cheering and applause.” All
the authorities I consulted on the etymology of this word didn’t indicate an
African origin for it. They all say it’s “perhaps” a blend of “ruction” and “rumpus,”
which both mean noisy disturbance. For me, the best that can be said about this
word is that its origins are shrouded in mystery. Neither the theory of its
African nor the suggestion that it’s a portmanteau of ruction and rumpus is
persuasive.
“Lukashi” doesn’t strike me as a
phonetically tenable cognate of ruckus. On the other hand, portmanteau words
often combine the semantic properties of two different words (such as “brunch,”
which combines the meanings of “breakfast” and “lunch” or “motel,” which blends
the meanings of “motor” and “hotel,” etc.). If ruction and rumpus mean exactly
the same thing, what’s the point of blending them?
Tote.
This word is probably not in common usage in non-native varieties of English.
It certainly isn’t in Nigerian English. But it is in British and American English.
As a noun, it means a bag for carrying things. (It’s also called a “tote bag”
or a “holdall,” especially in British English). When used as a verb, it means
to carry with a lot of effort, as in “I helped the old man tote his bag of
books.” Speakers of Nigerian English are more familiar with the adjectival
sense of this word in expressions such as “gun-toting police officers,” etc.
Holloway and Vass, following previous scholars, say
“tote” is derived from Bantu languages. It’s rendered as “tota” in Kikongo, a Bantu language spoken in Angola, the Democratic
Republic of the Congo, and the Republic of the Congo, where it means “to pick
up.” In Kimbundu, another Bantu language spoken mainly in Angola, it is
rendered as “tuta” and means “to
carry, load.” In Swahili, the most popular of the Bantu languages, “tuta” also means “pile up, carry,”
according to Gerard Dalgish in his A
Dictionary of Africanisms: Contributions of Sub-Saharan Africa to the English
Language. Several variations of “tot”—and
with the same meaning as the English “tote”— appear in many other Bantu
languages in Cameroun, according to linguists who study African languages.
Nevertheless, the Oxford
English Dictionary discountenanced the African origin of this word, but it
has not provided an alternative etymology for it. This seems to me rather
churlish and unhelpful. I think the facts of the word’s history and development
point to a decided Bantu origin. First, according the Online Etymology
Dictionary (which, like the Oxford
English Dictionary, claims that the word is “of unknown origin”), “tote”
was first recorded in the English language in the 1670s in the US state of
Virginia. So we’re certain that the word has not even the remotest origin to Early
or Middle English. That means it’s not an Anglo-Saxon word.
Now, consider this: According
to historical records, 85 percent of the African slaves
brought to Virginia were from four ethnic groups—Igbos from present-day
Nigeria, Akans from present-day Ghana, Bantu speakers from present-day Angola
and the Congo, and Mende people from present-day Senegal and the Gambia. Given
the presence of a substantial number of Bantu-speaking people in Virginia in
the 1670s when “tote” was first recorded, I don’t understand why the Oxford English Dictionary is reluctant
to accept that “tote” could be derived from the Bantu word of the same sound
and meaning, especially in light of the tremendous lexical influences of Bantu languages
in many creoles in the Western hemisphere, such as the English- and
Spanish-based creoles of the American south (Gullah), Jamaica (Patois), and Colombia (Palenquero)--and in in the liturgy of Africa-derived religions in Jamaica, Brazil, Cuba,
Haiti, and the Dominican Republic.
Yackety-yak.
It means noisy talk. “Yak” also means long and prolonged talk about a boring
subject, and can be used both as a noun and as a verb. Oxford English Dictionary says it’s an imitative word that began in
the 1950s, but Holloway and Vass insist it’s derived from “yakula-yakula,” a Bantu word that means “gabbing, chattering,
talking.” The Online Etymology Dictionary notes that there is also an Australian
English slang term called “yacker,” first recorded in 1882, which means
"talk, conversation." The evidence for the word’s African origin is,
I think, rather tentative but worth thinking about.
This
series will be concluded next week
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