jive

Etymology

The origin is uncertain.^[2][3][4] The American Heritage Dictionary, Merriam-Webster and Collins call it unknown.^[5][6][7] Barnhart and Etymonline take it from African American speech and probably from an African source, comparing Wolof jev or jeu (“to talk about someone absent, especially disparagingly”),^[8][9] and the Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins also allows an African origin.^[10] The OED suggests either that the noun comes from the verb or the verb from the noun, or that jive is a variant of gibe, spelled jibe, arising by hypercorrection: African American speech had /b/ in many words spelled with v in standard English, such as have and never, and a speaker may have replaced a genuine /b/ with /v/; it notes that the senses of jive and gibe do not match exactly.^[2] Green's Dictionary of Slang also derives it from the verb meaning to scoff,^[11] and Dictionary.com mentions the suggested alteration of gibe, though the change of sense and sound is unexplained.^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

Talk, especially misleading, empty or foolish talk: 1926, in a song title by Frankie “Half Pint” Jaxon.^[2] The verb, to mislead or tease someone, first appears in 1928 in the title of a record by Louis Armstrong and his Hot Five,^[2][8] and Etymonline, Barnhart and Merriam-Webster date the word to 1928.^[9][13][6]

Semantic evolution

In 1934 Cab Calloway explained that musicians used jiving for improvising, and that it had come into wider use in the sense of kidding or joshing.^[9] The word was soon applied to music itself: a fast, lively style of jazz from 1928, swing music,^[2] and the verb "to play jive music" from 1937;^[2] the dance performed to swing was jive by 1943, and the verb "to dance" by 1939.^[2] From 1938, when Cab Calloway published a “Hepster's” dictionary, jive also named the slang of African American jazz musicians in Harlem;^[2][9][8] the same year jive also meant marijuana.^[2] Green's Dictionary of Slang records a sense "sexual intercourse" in Black American English from 1928.^[11] The adjective, "false, phoney, deceitful", is recorded from 1938;^[2] Merriam-Webster dates it to 1953^[6] and Etymonline to 1969, with jive-ass in 1964.^[9] The phrase and all that jive, "and so on", is recorded from 1954, in Louis Armstrong.^[2] In Britain the word is now chiefly the dance, which became a ballroom style.^[2][7]

Timeline

• 1926 – misleading, empty or foolish talk.^[2]
• 1928 – verb, to mislead, deceive or tease; noun, fast lively jazz.^[2][8][9]
• 1934 – verb, to behave in a joking or teasing way.^[2]
• 1937 – verb, to play jive music.^[2]
• 1938 – the slang of Harlem jazz musicians; marijuana; adjective, false, phoney.^[2]
• 1939 – verb, to dance to jive music.^[2]
• 1943 – the dance performed to swing music.^[2]
• 1954 – and all that jive, and so on.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. (slang) Talk meant to mislead or impress; glib, empty or deceptive talk: Don't give me that jive about the bus being late.^[5][6][7][2]
2. A lively dance performed to swing music or rock and roll, popular in the 1940s and 1950s and now also a ballroom dance.^[7][2]
3. Fast, lively jazz or swing music.^[5][6][2]
4. The jargon of jazz musicians, especially the slang of Black musicians in Harlem in the 1930s and 1940s.^[5][6][7][2]

Verb

1. (slang) To mislead, tease or kid someone; to talk in a teasing or exaggerated way: Are you jiving me, or is this true?^[5][6][7][2]
2. To dance the jive, or to dance to jive music.^[5][6][7][2]
3. To play jive music.^[5][6][2]

Adjective

1. (slang) False, phoney or deceitful: some jive excuse.^[6][2][11]

Word family

• jiver
• jivey

Related words

• gibe
• jibe
• jazz
• jitterbug

Usage notes

In the United States jive is also used for "to agree, to make sense", especially in the negative (that doesn't jive), recorded from 1943.^[2][11] Etymonline regards this as a mistake for jibe, influenced by jive,^[9] and the OED also suggests confusion with jibe.^[2]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b c d e f g Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
8. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
9. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
10. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b c d Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
12. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
13. ^ Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins