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AsiaTraveller · Posted: Mon Sep 27, 2004 7:42 pm Post subject:

The term seems to have its origins in 19th-century American usage. It probably originally meant 'vital energy' or something like that. It has also had a more graphic meaning.

From "Jism: A Brief History"
http://members.lycos.co.uk/sporadic/JismFoundation/origins.html

The OED's first recorded use is from an American journal or newspaper:

1842 Spirit of Times 29 Oct.
"At the drawgate Spicer tried it on again, but his horse was knocked up - 'the gism' and the starch was effectively taken out of him by the long and desperate struggles he had been obliged to maintain".

1899 B.W. GREEN Word-bk. Virginia Folk Speech
Chism, chissum, seminal fluid

1937 J. WEIDMAN I can get it for you Wholesale!
'Step on it, will you?' 'Sure...' 'All right,.. but put a little jism into it will you?'

1942 C. MORLEY Thorofare (1943)
"One of the same fields that the major said had had the jizzum leached out of it by tobacco".

1955 T. STERLING Evil of Day
"The man had more jisum than he'd counted on".

1959 W. BURROUGHS Naked Lunch
"The Moslems must have blood and jissom... See, see where Christ's blood streams in the spermament".

1967 S. BECKETT Stories & Texts for Nothing
"A week will be ample, a week in spring, that puts the jizz in you".

*****

But here's a connection with Africa, in a derivation of the word jazz:

1860: jass, jasm, or gism. Slang expressions for speed and energy in athletic pursuits, and dance; probably in sexual contexts as well.

****

Also:
jissom, jiss, jizz, jism, jissum, gism
(n) semen. A word of unknown origin, dating from the 19th Century in the USA and by the early 1970s in use all over the English-speaking world. Dictionary of Contemporary Slang, Bloomsbury Reference, 1997.

****
Watchers of Bernadette Davis and Andrew Davies' BBC2 comedy series Game On will also be acutely aware of the rising popularity of the word. Perhaps the best example from the series is shown here -- an emotional damnation of the outside world by the agoraphobic Matthew:

"Nice out? Are you completely insane, Martin? Nice out for the slime surfers. Nice out for the skunk pussies. Nice out for the lymph leeches and the jissom monkeys and eyeball suckers. Nice out? It's not nice out. It's scum out, Martin." Game On: "Roundheads and Cavaliers", Hat Trick Productions, 1996.

As a matter of interest, the next episode was entitled "Slime Surfers and Jissom Monkeys". This is probably an indication of an unhealthy interest in the word on the part of the writers, but it does, however, highlight a considerable problem for the foundation: what exactly is the correct spelling?

steven_gerrard · Joined: 07 Feb 2003 Posts: 155

Yes- I have heard of this "Jizz" term in the TEFL world. I recently went to a conference and this was the subject of one of the presentations. And I have to say I was the only person who laughed out loud when the speaker kept on saying "JIZZ" at the top of his voice. Everyone else in the room looked at me like I was an utter imbecile.....

Apparantly it means some kind of indefinable "X-factor" that any born teacher should have. If you don't have it, you're in the wrong profession. And if I have learned anything from my years in TEFL its that most teachers are if nothing but full of jizz....

dmb · Joined: 12 Feb 2003 Posts: 8397

stephen, thanks for clearing this up. Glad to know that I don't live on a TEFL island.

gtidey · Joined: 18 May 2004 Posts: 93

Well, I'm off to add "Jizz by the Bucketload" to my CV then

mjed9 · Joined: 25 Oct 2003 Posts: 242

dmb · Joined: 12 Feb 2003 Posts: 8397

from my understanding Jizz is innate. If you are not born with Jizz then you will only ever be a good solid teacher. Only those born with the gift of Jizz will be great teachers.
Does anyone have any memories of a teacher from school that had Jizz flowing around the classroom?

Boy Wonder · Joined: 29 Mar 2004 Posts: 453 Location: Clacton on sea

Mr Capes...Business Studies teacher and Head of 5th year..Thomas Lord Audley Comprehensive School, Monkwick, Colchester, circa 1981-1986.

A maverick. a one-off, a showman and a man born with jizz oozing out of every pore in his body.

Lessons given as he lay horizontally prone for 40 minutes on someones desk...quick wit...humour by the wagon load...stinging putdowns and the ability to coax Social economics CSE Grade 3's from us all.....

Der brain Darrens and dippy Essex girls alike.

The man was a true genius and undisputed King of Jizz.

travellingtefler · Posted: Tue Oct 05, 2004 8:09 pm Post subject: Links

Googled jizz and the first search indicated the common usage of the word.

However - ELT links (none of which I could access further)

ELT Forum - Topic Archive
... The 'Jizz' Rainbow: a new challenge in teacher training. ... your say in the live chat
sessions � a real opportunity for you to challenge the views of ELT experts ...
www.eltforum.com/topic_arch.asp?AID=84

http://people.sabanciuniv.edu/~kurtoglueken/publication.html
The "jizz" rainbow: a new challenge in teacher training in Teacher Trainers� IATEFL SIG Newsletter Issue 2 July 2000 pp.16-20

www.bilkent.edu.tr/~busel/public.htm
D.K.Eken, �Towards Excellence: �Jizzful� Teaching� in the proceedings of the 5th International Bilkent University Conference on Excellence in Teaching: Promoting, Implementing and Sustaining Effective Practice, 248-257, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey, 5-7 February 2000.

www.ihes.com/ttsig/backarticles.asp
Back Issues of the TTEd SIG (formerly TT SIG) Newsletter

Issue 2/2000 - July 2000 - Contents

Letter from the Co-ordinator
Editorial
Focus on the SIG
Write up - TTSIG Open Forum Debate
TT SIG Challenge!!
Right to Reply: Why rant when you can have so much to say of value? - Mario Rinvolucri
The reviewer lashes back - Scott Thornbury
The "jizz" rainbow: a new challenge in teacher training - Deniz Kurtoglu Eken
Integrating the Internet into pre-service training - Nik Peachey
Implementing a TBL paradigm on pre-service TT courses - Karl Kaliski & Derrin Kent
Learning strategy awareness in teacher education - Edit Kontra
A good read - Jenny Pugsley
On not being dangerous: A review - Scott Thornbury

Remainder of links were sperm related.

markholmes · Joined: 21 Jun 2004 Posts: 661 Location: Wengehua

Do you think your avatar is big enough Boy Wonder? It seems to be squeezing everything out

dmb · Joined: 12 Feb 2003 Posts: 8397

TT, thanks for the links. Notice that 2 of the links, Sabanci and Bilkent, are both universities here in Turkey. Does Turkey have a stronghold on Jizz?

spidey · Posted: Wed Oct 06, 2004 12:18 am Post subject:

Question...

Can you use "jizz" and "mojo" in the same sentence?

Sweetsee · Joined: 11 Jun 2004 Posts: 2302 Location: ) is everything

I was jizz messing around with my mojo filter.

travellingtefler · Posted: Wed Oct 06, 2004 3:47 am Post subject:

dmb

I fear Turkey may have the stranglehold on jizz (in the TEFL sense).

I fear they may be developing some sort of blood test so that only those with jizz can be teachers.

dmb · Joined: 12 Feb 2003 Posts: 8397

Stephen Jones · Joined: 21 Feb 2003 Posts: 4124