Heebie-jeebies

This is an American expression dating from the early 1920s for an unpleasant, sometimes scary, negative feeling about something or someone. Its etymology is unknown but there was a popular dance during the 1920s called the heebie-jeebie, alleged to have been so-called after the incantations of a Red Indian witch doctor. A more likely source, however, is that it was coined by US cartoonist Billy Debeck in his cartoon strip Barney Google and Snuffy Smith and was first cited in New York American 26/10/1923. See also Google and Great balls of fire.