[General] Jazz sucks))

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BallsOfSteel

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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?

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BobK

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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

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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

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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

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wow. Interesting to know the histoory of the story
 

emsr2d2

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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

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