Evening Republican, Volume 23, Number 268, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 November 1920 — THE ROMANCE OF WORDS [ARTICLE]

THE ROMANCE OF WORDS

“JITNEY." N DURING the period which immediately followed the Mexican war, a number of words which were contractions or slight changes of terms in common use south of the Rio Grande entered the United States vocabulary because of the increased use of colloquial Span- - ish in the southern part of this country. Among these words was “jitney”—a combination of •two Mexican words meaning the lowest possible value, and first used by American in scornfully referring to the “small change” “chicken feed” which the Mexicans insisted on introducing into the games of chance. The copper cent being rare in those days, the term was gradually applied to the United States five-cent piece, and worked its way North, where, among the street arabs of New York a nickel has long’ been known as a “jit,” just as a cent is a “meg,” a “dimmo” is a dime and a “cutie” is a quarter. The advent of the private motorbus which charged five cents for a ride helped materially to revive the term, the automobiles first being known as “jitneybusses” and then the name was shortened to “jitneys.” (Copyright.)