Origin of boogie woogie

Question

A friend suggested to me yesterday during a Christmas dinner that the the term "boogie" (as in "boogie woogie") derives from the French "bouger," "to move." There may be a French connection to "jazz" because of the New Orleans origin of jazz and my friend theorizes that "boogie" morphed from "bouger" in this setting. It's a wonderful theory but there s no etumological evidence to support it. The Oed merely states "origin uncertain." Any opinions?

Usenet · Accepted Answer

[nq:1]A friend suggested to me yesterday during a Christmas dinner that the the term "boogie" (as in "boogie woogie") derives ... a wonderful theory but there s no etumological evidence to support it. The Oed merely states "origin uncertain." Any opinions?[/nq]
Seems pretty much impossible if, as I assume, "bouger" has the (Z) sound (or even, say, an archaic (dZ)), since "boogie" is (bUgi) or, down in old New Orleans, (bUgI) I s'pose. How could you possibly get from "bouger" to (bUgI)? The only way I can see is some sort of writing-type change, but that's really impossible.
If, however, the French word were, say, "bouguer", then you might be in bidness.

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[nq:2]A friend suggested to me yesterday during a Christmas dinner ... support it. The Oed merely states "origin uncertain." Any opinions?[/nq]
[nq:1]Seems pretty much impossible if, as I assume, "bouger" has the (Z) sound (or even, say, an archaic (dZ)), since ... writing-type change, but that's really impossible. If, however, the French word were, say, "bouguer", then you might be in bidness.[/nq]
Don't try to lay no boogie woogie on the King of Rock and Roll.

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In our last episode,
(Email Removed),
the lovely and talented howard richler
broadcast on alt.usage.english:
[nq:1]A friend suggested to me yesterday during a Christmas dinner that the the term "boogie" (as in "boogie woogie") derives ... a wonderful theory but there s no etumological evidence to support it. The Oed merely states "origin uncertain." Any opinions?[/nq]
This query has been treated by Cecil Adams:
http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1 288.html
whose theory is (roughly)
boulgre (Fr. Bulgarian heretic) >
bougre (E. heretic) > ****** (E. sodomite) ->
Bogy

-> bogeyman (hobgoblin) -> bogey (Negro - (similar to "spook"))

Curiously, bogeyman was still very common in BEV at least as late as the 1950s for devil/demon/goblin.
Probably BrE bogle (goblin) goes in there somewhere. Needless to say, there are a few holes in Uncle Cece's theory, but it should show that there are a variety of plasible alternatives, and with no good evidence, your guess is as good as mine, which adds up to "origin uncertain."

Although the first recording to use the name "boogie-woogie" is from New Orleans (1928), the music is blues, not jazz, and numerous other cities, such as St. Louis, Kansas City, or even Chicago probably have as much claim to the eight-to-the-bar style of blues piano.

Supposedly the OED dates "boogie" meaning house party to c. 1915, and indeed, "party" is still one of the meanings of "boogie." And there is no doubt that "boogie" now means "move quickly" too (and is my pet theory for the origin of "book" = depart quickly).

I have the feeling that when the OED puts down "origin uncertain" they don't mean "gee, we haven't thought that much about it."

Lars Eighner ~~finger for geek code~~ (Email Removed) http://www.io.com/~eighner/ The last thing one discovers in composing a work is what to put first. Blaise Pascal

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]Although the first recording to use the name "boogie-woogie" is from New Orleans (1928), the music is blues, not jazz, and numerous other cities, such as St. Louis, Kansas City, or even Chicago probably have as much claim to the eight-to-the-bar style of blues piano.[/nq]
Perhaps it's onomatopoeic, so to say.
BTW, I don't feel comfortable with the assertion that boogie-woogie piano is blues but not jazz it comes from a time when non-rural blues and jazz overlapped (as they did, I'd say, during 1920-1954). I suspect that the early boogie-woogie pianists may have thought of themselves as playing jazz as much as, or more than, blues. OTOH all the boogie-woogie I've ever heard does seem to conform strictly to the 12-bar blues form.

Origin of boogie woogie

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