What a fun word to say! I love little gems like this one. It is interesting to note that this is a new word, it came into existence in October 1923. This was when William De Beck, an American cartoonist, published his popular comic Barney Google. Though I could not find the original strip, I have seen around on the internet that the original saying was "'You dumb ox — why don't you get that stupid look offa your pan — you gimme the heeby jeebys!'" (http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-hee1.htm).
The AHD says that this slang noun means "uneasiness or nervousness; the jitters." I really like how this word has entered the English language: by pure accident! As Dr. R says, if a word just gets circulated enough, than it becomes one. I guess this is a pretty good example. : D
Many people say that he got his word from Native-American or Voodoo chants or incantations. All of these allegations have not been substantiated (http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-hee1.htm).
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This word is a great example of English reduplication. Reduplication is a linguistic phenomenon in which a sound gets doubled or repeated in a word. Some languages use reduplication systematically--in Greek, for instance, reduplication often signals the difference between present tense and perfect tense (kal- is the Greek stem for "call" and when reduplicated it becomes kekal- and is the stem for "have called"). In English, reduplication is usually more fun and random--as in this word. Other examples would be hodgepodge, mishmash, teeny-weeny, picnic, bye-bye, and so-so.
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