ska

Etymology

The origin is uncertain.^[2][3] Several dictionaries call it unknown or obscure.^{[4][5][6][7][8]} The OED, revised in 2021, suggests that it imitates the guitar sound typical of the music; it compares “Ska-Ba”, an instrumental track in this style released in 1963 by the saxophonist Tommy McCook, the name of the Jamaican band the Skatalites, formed in 1964, and scat, which may be imitative in the same way.^[2] The American Heritage Dictionary derives it either from “(Love) Skavoovie”, a greeting used by the Jamaican bassist Cluet Johnson, one of the creators of ska, or from the sound of a guitar played together with a rim click on a snare drum.^[9] The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang also reports that the coinage is generally credited to Johnson, and quotes the guitarist Ernest Ranglin saying that musicians coined it for the “skat! skat! skat!” of the scratching guitar strum.^[10] Merriam-Webster's Collegiate takes it as perhaps an alteration of scat,^[11] and Allsopp as probably from the improvised syllables of Black American scat singing, by back-formation or through the loss of a final /t/ in Caribbean Creole.^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

A style of Jamaican popular music: 1964, in a headline of the Daily Gleaner of Kingston, Jamaica, on 17 March.^[2] Etymonline and Merriam-Webster also date it to 1964,^[5][4] and Dictionary.com to 1960–65.^[8]

Semantic evolution

According to Allsopp, ska began among poor rural Jamaicans and was adapted for party dancing by urban dance bands; it was widely popular in the Caribbean in the 1950s and 1960s and was the forerunner of rock steady and reggae.^[12] The name also covered the dance done to it,^[2][3][12] and in the Caribbean it was used as a verb, to dance the ska, as in a 1965 advertisement, though to do the ska was commoner.^[12] The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang describes it as the rhythmic style that evolved into reggae.^[10]

Timeline

• 1964 – a style of Jamaican popular music.^[2][5][4]
• 1965 – verb, to dance the ska, in the Caribbean.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. A style of popular music from Jamaica, with a fast tempo and strongly accented offbeats, combining Caribbean rhythms with jazz.^[2][4][6]
2. A dance performed to this music.^[2][3][12]

Verb

1. (Caribbean) To dance the ska.^[12]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
7. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
9. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
10. ^ a b Dalzell, Tom; Victor, Terry, eds. (2013), The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, 2nd ed., London: Routledge
11. ^ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
12. ^ a b c d e f g Allsopp, Richard, ed. (1996), Dictionary of Caribbean English Usage, Oxford: Oxford University Press