Date: Mon, 4 Nov 2002 14:41:18 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Sherry Peruzzi Subject: Re: Jizz? MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT I'm wondering if the message I posted about this yesterday got through, since nobody's mentioned it in the discussion. In case it didn't, I'll repost it. (If it did and everybody just ignored it, please excuse me. :-) ) The archive of the Australian birding listserv has an extensive and fully referenced article on "The Etymology of Jizz" discussing the meaning and all the possible derivations that have been proposed for the word. It says that "jizz" was in use long before the Second World War, and there's no evidence that the expression "GISS, General Impression of Size and Shape" it was ever used in World War II. So that's apparently a red herring. It also says that jizz "was used in the early part of the century, at least on the West Coast of Ireland, with the same meaning we now give to it in birding and with the same meaning as that captured by the GISS acronym." The Oxford English Dictionary, which is accepted as the authoritative source for etymology, says that the origin of jizz is unknown. So nobody really knows for sure (not even Pete Dunne ;-) ). The article sums the four most likely possibilities up this way: (a) the 19th century Scottish word 'gizz' (a face); (b) the 18th century word 'phiz' or 'phizz' (face, expression of face); (c) the early 20th century West Coast of Ireland's 'jizz' (the characteristic impression given by an animal or plant); and, perhaps (d) gestalt, the German word used in contemporary English-language psychology with the meaning that the whole is different from the sum of the parts. To read the complete article, go to this page: http://menura.cse.unsw.edu.au:1080/1995/08/msg00056.html Sherry Peruzzi Howard County Walter Ellison wrote: > Hi All, > > I had a couple of further comments on this topic. Some believe "Jizz" comes > orignally from "Gestalt" not "GISS" - Bill Oddie in his "Little Black Bird > Book" equivocates on the linguistic origin of the word. > > If you have ever identified a robin flying high overhead with no sign of its > red breast you used jizz. Most high-speed highway IDs can pretty much be > attributed to using jizz as well. A lot of distant hawk watch IDs relate to > jizz. As a matter of fact there *is* a US published guide that relies > heavily on jizz - Pete Dunne's, Clay Sutton's and David Sibley's "Hawks in > Flight". > > Jizz identification is based on seeing the whole bird and knowing it so well > that just the way it flies, its shape (wing structure, body form, tail > length, etc), its habitat, and the subtle sounds it makes add up to an > identification lacking true "field marks" in the conventional Peterson sense > of the word. > > Jizz is useful for counting and identifying common birds, or identifying > birds with which an observer has lots of comparative field experience. It is > not a good technique to use on rarities needing solid documentation. In a > rare bird report jizz should always be secondary to well seen plumage > characters and well described vocalizations. A good example of a group of > birds that is often identified with jizz characters and give Records > Committees fits is seabirds, especially jaegers. > > The jizz of a bird is part of its ineffable beauty. The slender, arrow-like > form of a pintail is breathtaking. By all means use and enjoy the jizz of > birds to know them, but be cautious using it to document good birds to > others. > > Good Birding, > > Walter Ellison > MD-DC Atlas Coordinator - MOS > 23460 Clarissa Road > Chestertown, MD 21620 > phone: 410-778-9568 > e-mail: rossgull@crosslink.net > > "A person who is looking for something doesn't travel very fast" - E. B. > White (in "Stuart Little") > > ======================================================================= > To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com > with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey > ======================================================================= ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================