Etymology 1

The earliest known appearance in print dates from 1922, in Thomas Coward’s “Country Diary” column for the Manchester Guardian of 6 December 1921; the piece was subsequently included in his 1922 book Bird Haunts and Nature Memories. He attributed it to “a west-coast Irishman”, and explained:

if we are walking on the road and see, far ahead, someone whom we recognise although we can neither distinguish features nor particular clothes, we may be certain that we are not mistaken; there is something in the carriage, the walk, the general appearance which is familiar; it is, in fact, the individual’s jizz.

There are several theories as to the etymology of “jizz”:

  • From the military term GIS (“general impression and shape”).
  • Possible contraction of just is (in the sense that a particular bird species “just is” that species).

An essay by Greenwood and Greenwood in 2018 debunks these theories. Other suggestions include variants of guise, gist and gestalt (mispronounced).

Noun

jizz (usually uncountable, plural jizzes)

  1. (ornithology, birdwatching) The physical and behavioural characteristics of a bird that enable it to be immediately recognised by an experienced birder as a certain type of bird, especially to family or genus level.

    • 1922, TA Coward, Bird Haunts and Nature Memories, London: Warne:

      A West Coast Irishman was familiar with the wild creatures which dwelt on or visited his rocks and shores; at a glance he could name them, usually correctly, but if asked how he knew them would reply ‘By their “jizz”.’

    • 2009, Jeremy Mynott, chapter 3, in Birdscapes, Princeton and Oxford: Princeton, page 74:

      Political cartoonists rely a lot on jizz. When a new president or prime minister comes into office it usually takes the cartoonists a little while to decide which features to select as field marks but they then stylise these in ways that make them instantly recognisable to the rest of us, even though they may be grossly exaggerated.

    • 2015, Nick Davies, chapter 3, in Cuckoo - Cheating by Nature (paperback), London: Bloomsbury, page 53:

      His birds are not carefully posed to illustrate every plumage detail; they are impressions rather than portraits. With a few deft strokes of his pencil, he captures their ‘jizz’.

Further definitions can be found at: