Questions & Answers: Heebie-jeebies

Ah, the unrelenting joys of being ready for client questions and concerns. Such as "Isn't Heebie-Jeebies a derogatory term?"

In a bunch of words, no.

If you want derogatory, quote Trent Lott about the next nominee for Supreme Court Justice: Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., a former Senate majority leader, said Bush should ‘‘nominate a strict constructionist – man, woman or minority,”

Questions & Answers: Heebie-jeebies: "[Q] From A Jaye Costine: “Would you know the origin of heebie-jeebies, for a state of nervous depression or anxiety?”

[A] It seems pretty certain that it was invented about 1923 by the American cartoonist Billy De Beck. Its first appearance was in one of his Barney Google cartoons in the New York American on 26 October 1923, though there it was spelled heeby-jeeby. Where it came from, apart from his fevered imagination, is open to question. There was a dance at about the same time, and a song in 1926, both said to have originated from Native American witch-doctor chants before human sacrifices. But the dance and the song both seem to be later than the first appearance of the phrase. Mr De Beck, by the way, is also known for other bits of now obsolescent or obsolete slang, such as hotsy-totsy and horsefeathers. But heebie-jeebies has survived to become part of the standard language."