[General] Jazz sucks))

[BallsOfSteel]

Hello forum!

Recently I heard from one native speaker (Canadian) who taught English slang that this common expression "... sucks" (Ex: Meh, this music really sucks) actually came firom Jazz. When a musician played well he "blew" and if he did a poor job he "sucked". Perhaps for people who play wind instruments that really makes sense. Was it just a joke to hide some other "reasons" or it's really true?

Thank you.

 

[BobK]

This smacks to me of folk etymology. I don't have access to the OED, but Etymonline says

...Slang sense of "be contemptible" first attested 1971 (the underlying notion is of fellatio). Related: Sucked; sucking. Suck eggs is from 1906. Suck hind tit "be inferior" is American English slang first recorded 1940

I can quite understand that jazz musicians would have latched onto it, but I doubt if they were the first to use it in this sense.

b

 

[emsr2d2]

Was it just a joke to hide some other "reasons" or [STRIKE]it's[/STRIKE] is it really true?

See above for a reminder of how to construct questions.

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

This smacks to me of folk etymology. I don't have access to the OED, but Etymonline says

I can quite understand that jazz musicians would have latched onto it, but I doubt if they were the first to use it in this sense.

b

1971?! We were using it in grade school in the fifties!

 

[pandadynamic]

wow. Interesting to know the histoory of the story

 

[emsr2d2]

Wow. It's interesting to know the [strike]histoory[/strike] history of the story.

Remember to use correct capitalisation and punctuation, and always check your spelling.

 

[Raymott]

I'm not sure of the etymology, but I think this story blows!