Bopping Around Town

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hey, this is John Love from San Diego. How are you guys doing?

Doing great. What’s up, John?

Yeah, hey, I was calling because I had a question about a word that I have frequently used and my wife kind of teased me a little bit about.

It’s bebopping. And so I used that recently. I heard it a lot growing up.

I used it recently, just kind of came out naturally, and she just kind of gave me a funny look.

And she’s like, what does that mean? I was like, oh, just somebody’s bee bopping around, just kind of meandering, me going about their business or something.

And she just thought I made that up. And I said, no, I heard it all the time in Georgia.

The days went by and my stepmom came to visit from Georgia and she used it in a sentence.

And I was like, aha. So we all had a good laugh. And then my stepmom reminded me that she also grew up in Indiana where she heard it often as well.

So we’re just trying to get to the bottom of, you know, where did bebopping come from?

So bebopping means what exactly?

To me, it’s just kind of when somebody’s bebopping around, they’re kind of, like I said, meandering or just without real intense intention, just kind of going about or kind of just bouncing around different places.

So you’re gadding about, you’re aimless.

Yeah, bingo, aimless. That’s a great word, yes.

Okay, yeah. A lot of people are immediately going, does this have something to do with jazz? And it probably does. There’s a good chance that this bebopping, and sometimes people just say bopping, is connected to the bopping or bebopping in jazz music.

There’s a mention in Robert Gold’s Jazz Dictionary where he connects it with the idea of this quick in and out that you might do as you move from place to place, maybe as you run errands.

And it’s kind of like the quick in and out that a jazz musician might do when they’re playing the bebop music or singing the kind of scat style that goes with bebop or historically did.

The earliest use I know of it is from a New York City, a black New York City newspaper in 1950.

A gossip column is talking about the actor Dorothy Dandridge says that she’s seen bopping around a nightclub called Bop City.

And you’ll find that it is often put that way, bopping around or bopping out, bopping off, be bopping around.

Occasionally you’ll see diddy bop or diddy bop out, although that later took another meaning of to swagger.

But yeah, there’s a really strong sense here that bopping around is kind of this improvised notion of going from place to place without an itinerary.

Just like a jazz musician might play together with other musicians, play bebop music kind of without a plan or without a sheet music in front of them.

Yeah, how cool. That’s really, really interesting that it came all the way from jazz, and we enjoy jazz, so it makes sense how that works. That’s really cool. Thank you, guys.

Yeah, it is, isn’t it? I just love that idea that jazz has given so much to us, and I love that it’s also dropped these little pearls into the language.

Wow. Well, awesome. Well, thank you guys so much. We were really interested, you know,

As the discussions went on with the family and the kids were excited to know we’d be talking

With you guys. So thank you guys so much. We’re delighted you called. It’s our pleasure. Call

Again sometime. Take care. Will do. Bye. Happy bopping. Bop bop. What word is your family

Talking about? Call us to talk about it. 877-929-9673.