JITTERBUG

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JITTERBUG

Postby Dr. Goodword » Sat Mar 24, 2007 11:08 pm

• jitterbug •

Pronunciation: ji-dê(r)-bêg • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Noun

Meaning: 1. A fast, jerking dance done to 'hot' jazz in the 40s. 2. Someone who jitterbugs or who is high-strung, hyperactive.

Notes: Today's Good Word comes from the swing era of jazz and is widely believed to have originated with Cab Calloway, leader of one of the most famous swing bands. The noun is also used as a usual English verb; just remember to double the G when adding suffixes that begin with a vowel: jitterbugs, jitterbugged, jitterbugging.

In Play: Jitterbug is a word that never escaped the 40s—though in some US cities it is making a bit of a comeback. As dance crazes come and go, their names come and go with them. We rarely get a chance to use this word today in situations like this: "Your grandma and I can still jitterbug circles around you and your hip-hop dancing friends." Back in the 40s and early 50s, however, we talked like this all the time: "We jitterbugged at the party until we dropped last night."

Word History: A jitterbug was someone with the 'jitters', who dances nervously or feverishly. We can only speculate as to the origins of jitter. It probably is a variant of an older word chitter that referred to shivering or chattering teeth. Chitter may have been derived from chatter under the influence of shiver. Shiver was originally spelled and pronounced chiver so the two may have been blended thus: chi(ver|cha)tter. The change of chitter to jitter is easy. The sounds [ch] and [j] are identical except that in pronouncing [j] we vibrate our vocal cords. Jitter could then have been a very slight variation of chitter. It originally referred to rapidly vibrating teeth or shivering but its meaning expanded to anything shaking rapidly.
• The Good Dr. Goodword

Stargzer
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Postby Stargzer » Sun Mar 25, 2007 12:41 pm

Some more on Jitter.


Wikipedia:
In electronics and telecommunications, jitter is an abrupt and unwanted variation of one or more signal characteristics, such as the interval between successive pulses, the amplitude of successive cycles, or the frequency or phase of successive cycles. Jitter is a significant factor in the design of almost all communications links (e.g. USB, PCI-e, SATA, OC-48).
Jitterbug Sander: a type of orbital sander (random orbital sander?) for use on flat surfaces. I can't find the definition or origin of the term yet, but I believe it refers to the tendency of the tool to "dance" around the work surface if not properly controlled, due to the random nature of the way it moves the abrasive paper to avoid cutting a groove in the work.
Regards//Larry

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Bailey
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Postby Bailey » Sun Mar 25, 2007 1:05 pm

I'm familiar with Jitter when I drink Any caffeine. I used to love coffee but switched to herb tea, now even one cup of coffee or reg. tea gives me the Jitters like crazy. A Jittery chimp is not a pretty picture.

mark no-more-coffee-tea-or-pop Bailey

Today is the first day of the rest of your life, Make the most of it...
kb









Perry
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Postby Perry » Sun Mar 25, 2007 4:47 pm

and is widely believed to have originated with Cab Calloway, leader of one of the most famous swing bands
Cab Calloway also invented the moon walk dance step, so often wrongly ascribed to Michael Jackson. (And as far as I know, Cab didn't grab at his crotch when dancing.) Cab can be seen doing this step in an old Betty Boop cartoon (either St. James Infirmary, or The Old Man of The Mountain).
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Anonymous

Stargzer
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Postby Stargzer » Thu Mar 29, 2007 10:45 pm

and is widely believed to have originated with Cab Calloway, leader of one of the most famous swing bands
Cab Calloway also invented the moon walk dance step, so often wrongly ascribed to Michael Jackson. ...
Yes, well, we know Cab Calloway wasn't from another planet, but we can't be sure what happened to Michael.
Regards//Larry

"To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them."
-- Attributed to Richard Henry Lee


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