Jitterbug defined:
There
were distinct forms of the Jitterbug: It
is a slang or umbrella term for Lindy Hop
and what we call "Swing dancing" today.
The term Jitterbug initially enveloped all
styles of swing. (What's
swing?):
Jazz
Lingo (Daddy-O, Icky, Reefer, Hep-Cat, etc.)
played an important part in coining the term
'Jitterbug' and was big during the Jazz era.
Here are some of its stories:
1) One description is that it meant
a person suffering from alcoholic or drug
nerves.
2) Another story has the word associated
to the english word "Bugger or Bugging" (Sodomy;
sound QUEER to you?) and was used to characterize
someone with syphilis.
3) Another (resembling the preceding)
was also derogatory toward interracial couples
with an African American partner; it assumed
they had the 'jitters' from drugs, alcohol
or syphilis and were buggering them; a 'jitterbugger'!
4) Some of the stories were comical,
such as 'the dancers looked like jitterbugs
because they bounced'.
5) Oddly enough some fishing lures
are also called jitterbugs.
So, whatever the original intent of the
word may have been, it is now, known as the
Lindy Hop swing dance.
