Entry · catalog no. 1095

gage

/ /ɡeɪdʒ/ /GAYJ

noun · Jazz centers (New Orleans, Chicago, New York) · 1920s

✓ Verified

Marijuana, especially in the jazz era; also "the gage." A smoke shared in the vipers' world of 1920s–40s musicians.

“Louis called it the gage and never made a secret of loving it.”

Origin & Attribution

Jazz-age vernacular for marijuana, current among Black musicians from the 1920s. Louis Armstrong, an open and lifelong user, called it "the gage" and was arrested for "smoking the gage" outside a Los Angeles club in 1930. Also spelled "gauge."

1920s

Current among jazz musicians ('vipers')

1930

Armstrong arrested for 'smoking the gage' in Los Angeles

Region of origin

West

Midwest

N.East

South

Nationwide / diaspora

Jazz centers (New Orleans, Chicago, New York) · 1920s

Spoken by

Jazz-era Black musicians (vipers)

$GAGEThe Record · cultural traction

▲ Fading

101 yrs

ahead of the mainstream

18/100

peak cultural energy

Introduced to English by the culture — logged here before the mainstream caught on.

Cultural usage — the recordMainstream search interest

First used

1925

in the culture

Cultural energy indexed from documented usage, search interest, and citation frequency. The recorded date is the archive’s permanent point of record.

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Atlanta, GA

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Memphis, TN

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Citations & Sources

■

Louis Armstrong, Los Angeles marijuana arrest ('smoking the gage') — documented account · 1930

submitted

■

Mezz Mezzrow, "Really the Blues" (viper/jive vocabulary) — memoir · 1946

submitted

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