Chrysti the Wordsmith > Radio Scripts

In recent CTW sessions we've been looking at reduplications -- rhythmic repetitions such as helter skelter, hocus pocus and mumbo jumbo. On deck today is the quirky reduplication heebie jeebies.

The coinage of this expression is most often attributed to the American cartoonist Billy De Beck, originator of "Barney Google", a syndicated comic strip that ran in the early 20th century. De Beck's cartoon characters used the phrase heebie jeebies to describe the jitters or the fidgets.

No one is sure how De Beck came up with this expression, but one source speculates that it may be a "reduplicated perversion" of creepy or the creeps. The late etymologist John Ciardi, in his book Good Words to You, wondered if De Beck might have coined heebie jeebies from the euphemism holy jeepers or heeper jeepers.

De Beck's reduplication was propelled to national recognition when Louis Armstrong recorded his novelty hit "Heebie Jeebies" in Chicago in 1926. The tune was full of scat syllables, with heebie jeebies in the starring role. The recording sold 40,000 copies and inspired a dance of the same name that enjoyed a brief but frantic life among American youth in the late 1920s.

No one dances the Heebie Jeebies any more, but we still get the heebie jeebies, a feeling of anxiety, the creeps, the jitters.

Radio Script > Heebie Jeebies