Thread by @jholbo1

Maybe I'll pile on this thread later, with the rest. For starters, I think we can agree Biden don't jive. The word is 'jibe'. But it's one of those words people get wrong. 1/

https://twitter.com/Nate_Cohn/status/1384127115101040645

So I got curious. Whence 'jibe'? The odd thing is that this usage is opposite to other senses, seemingly. 'To jibe' is to sneer; or steer a boat in a way I wouldn't describe as 'harmonizing' with the wind. 2/ google.com/search?client=…

The OED says it's a mystery but the first instance, from 1813 - "it curricle-izes or gibes in but too well with the passing anecdotes of the day" - seems to suggest a clear solution and it isn't the phonetic connection to 'chime'. 3/

'Curricle' is a two-wheeled carriage but also a 'short course'. It would make total sense of the author of the "Sporting Mag" piece to be newly stretching 'jibe' in the sailing sense, while neologistically verbing 'curricleize', to say 'briefly come in line with'. 4/

'Jibing', socially, is brief harmony - a short course of travel together in line (for at least two - two horses?) And that's how 'jibing' in sailing works, kinda. You are passingly, not steadily, 'with the wind'. 5/

Now one must check to be sure that there is no 'jive'/'jibe' link. The former isn't just the latter originally. No, 'jive' first means misleading or empty talk. Then it means 'jazz', by some 'bad=good!' (playing 'out' is in) route. 6/

The first occurrence of 'jive' in a jazz context is, says OED, "State Street Jive" by the excellently named Cow Cow Davenport. You can listen to it here. A lot of hiss, but it's talking, not singing (by Ivy Smith). 7/

I'm having trouble making out the lyrics but she is complaining about her man, so I wonder whether this sense is 'jive talk'. That is, the 'jive' in the title doesn't (yet?) denote the boogie-woogie? 8/

More googling and basic Wikipedia checking. The term was spread, partly, by Cab Calloway's popular "Hepster's Dictionary", which defines 'jive as ' '(n.): Harlemese speech.' 9/ flashbak.com/cab-calloways-…

The dictionary also carries the subtitle 'language of Jive'. So there you have it. It looks impossible to say exactly when 'jive' came to refer to a style of music, as opposed to speech. 10/

But once it does you get the possibility of mistaking 'jive' - getting into the musical swing - for 'jibe' - get into the harmonious course or line. end/

[I will be refuted if the ghost of Cornpop pops up and testifies young Biden learned to jive back in Wilmington, back in the day. Biden impresses us surprisingly.]

[Last time I consulted OED a pedant popped up, alleging I couldn't read a dictionary, e.g. I shouldn't assume Cow Cow Davenport is first. That's fair. But a quick check doesn't find any earlier. Can you? Here's an article. Textual record thin before 30's. muse-jhu-edu.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/article/24793]