gig
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: enpr: gĭg
ipa: /ɡɪɡ/
rhymes: -ɪɡ
enpr: jĭg
ipa: /d͡ʒɪɡ/
homophone: jig (one pronunciation)
rhymes: -ɪɡ
rhymes: -ɪɡ
enpr: gĭg
ipa: /ɡɪɡ/
rhymes: -ɪɡ
enpr: jĭg
ipa: /d͡ʒɪɡ/
homophone: jig (one pronunciation)
rhymes: -ɪɡ
Forms: form: gigs
Etymology: The noun is derived from Middle English gigg, gigge, gygge (“spinning object; a top”); further origin uncertain, possibly:
* from Old Norse [Term?] (compare Danish gig (“a top”), dialectal Norwegian giga (“to shake about”)), from Proto-Germanic *gīganą (“to move, wish, desire”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰeyǵʰ-, *gʰeygʰ- (“to yawn, gape, long for, desire”); or
* ultimately onomatopoeic.
Senses 2–4 are thought to derive from sense 1 (“whipping-top”), but their exact relationship is unclear.
The verb is derived from the noun.
Senses: examples: text: Peda[nt]. Thou diſputes like an Infant: goe vvhip thy Gigg. / Pag[e]. Lende me your Horne to make one, and I vvill vvhip about your Infamie vnũ cita a gigge of a Cuckolds horne.
ref: c. 1595–1596 (date written), W. Shakespere [i.e., William Shakespeare], A Pleasant Conceited Comedie Called, Loues Labors Lost. […] (First Quarto), London: […] W[illiam] W[hite] for Cut[h]bert Burby, published 1598, →OCLC; republished as Shakspere’s Loves Labours Lost (Shakspere-Quarto Facsimiles; no. 5), London: W[illiam] Griggs, […], [1880], →OCLC, [Act V, scene i]:
english: Pedant [i.e., Holofernes]. You argue like an infant: go whip your gig. / Page. Lend me your horn to make one, and I will whip about your infamy, [vnũ cita is unclear; perhaps an error for vidcit = videlicet, "namely"], a gig of a cuckold's horn.
translation: Pedant [i.e., Holofernes]. You argue like an infant: go whip your gig. / Page. Lend me your horn to make one, and I will whip about your infamy, [vnũ cita is unclear; perhaps an error for vidcit = videlicet, "namely"], a gig of a cuckold's horn.
bold_translation_offsets: 66
69
221
224
text: Play-things vvhich are above their [children's] Skill to make; as Tops, Gigs, Battledors, and the like, vvhich are to be uſed vvith labour, ſhould indeed be procur'd them: Theſe 'tis convenient they ſhould have, not for Variety, but Exerciſe.
ref: 1695, [John Locke], “§130”, in Some Thoughts Concerning Education. […], 3rd edition, London: […] A[wnsham] and J[ohn] Churchill, […], →OCLC, page 241:
text: From infancy through childhood's giddy maze, / Frovvard at ſchool, and fretful in his plays, / The puny tyrant burns to ſubjugate / The free republic of the vvhip-gig ſtate.
ref: 1782, William Cowper, “Hope”, in Poems, London: […] J[oseph] Johnson, […], →OCLC, page 151:
glosses: A top which is made to spin by tying a piece of string around it and then throwing it so that the string unwinds rapidly; a whipping-top.
qualifier: school slang (Eton College)
glosses: A person with an odd appearance; also, a foolish person.
examples: text: Such was his toil, when one night coming home, / Such swell uncivil, who'd been out to roam / In search of lark, or some delicious gig / The mind delights in, when 'tis in prime twig,—
ref: 1820, Richard Ranger, “Randall; a Fragment. With Notes”, in Jack Randall’s Diary of Proceedings at the House of Call for Genius. […], London: […] [J. Brettell] for W[illiam] Simpkin and R[ichard] Marshall, […], →OCLC, page 62:
glosses: Senses relating to enjoyment.
Fun; frolics.
examples: text: I muſt goe ſee him preſently, / For this is ſuch a gig: for certaine Gentlemen / The Fiend rides on a Fiddleſticke.
ref: 1619, John Fletcher, “The Humorous Lieutenant”, in Comedies and Tragedies […], London: […] Humphrey Robinson, […], and for Humphrey Moseley […], published 1647, →OCLC, Act IV, scene iv, page 141, column 1:
glosses: Senses relating to enjoyment.
A fanciful impulse; a whim; also, a joke.
examples: text: She [a frigate] also carried a Commodore's Barge, a Captain's Gig, and a "dingy," a small yawl, with a crew of apprentice boys. […] Above all, the officers see to it that the Commodore's Barge and the Captain's Gig are manned by gentlemanly youths, who do credit to their country, and form agreeable objects for the eyes of the Commodore or Captain to repose upon as he tranquilly sits in the stern, when pulled ashore by his barge-men or gig-men, as the case may be.
ref: 1850, Herman Melville, “The Frigate in Harbour—The Boats—Grand State Reception of the Commodore”, in White Jacket; or, The World in a Man-of-War, volume I, London: Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, page 254:
text: The captain's gig still lies before ye whole and sound, / It shall carry all o' we.
ref: 1979, Stan Rogers, “The Flowers of Bermuda” (track 6), in Between the Breaks … Live!, Dundas, Ont.: Fogarty’s Cove Music:
topics: nautical
transport
glosses: Senses relating to vehicles.
A small, narrow, open boat carried in a larger ship, and used for transportation between the ship and the shore, another vessel, etc.
topics: nautical
transport
glosses: Senses relating to vehicles.
A similar rowing boat or sailboat, especially one used for racing; specifically, a six-oared sea rowing boat commonly found in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly.
examples: text: While Sir William was with them, Mr. Collins devoted his mornings to driving him out in his gig, and shewing him the country; […]
ref: 1813 January 27, [Jane Austen], chapter VII, in Pride and Prejudice: […], volume II, London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC, page 77:
text: Here a coach thundered over the pavement, and there an unwieldy omnibus, with spruce gigs rattling past, and horsemen prancing through all the bustle.
ref: 1837 July, Nathaniel Hawthorne, “[Tales and Sketches.] Fragments from the Journal of a Solitary Man.”, in The Dolliver Romance, and Other Pieces, Boston, Mass.: James R[ipley] Osgood and Company, late Ticknor & Fields, and Fields, Osgood, & Co., published 1876, →OCLC, section I, page 84:
text: [W]hen he was gone (in the carriage, mind you, not in the gig driven by the groom), I am sure Mrs. Newcome would have written a letter that night to Her Grace the Duchess Dowager, his mamma, full of praise of the dear child, his graciousness, his beauty, and his wit, and declaring that she must love him henceforth and for ever after as a son of her own.
ref: 1854, Arthur Pendennis [pseudonym; William Makepeace Thackeray], “Clive’s Uncles”, in The Newcomes: Memoirs of a Most Respectable Family, volume I, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], →OCLC, page 51:
text: [T]he room grew stifling warm and vapor clung to the windowpanes, blurring the throng of people still milling outside the courthouse, a row of tethered gigs and buggies, distant pine trees in a scrawny, ragged grove.
ref: 1967, William Styron, “Judgment Day”, in The Confessions of Nat Turner, New York, N.Y.: Random House, →OCLC, page 77:
topics: road
transport
glosses: Senses relating to vehicles.
A two-wheeled carriage drawn by a single horse.
Derived terms: captain's gig
gigful
gighouse
gig-house
gig house
gig-lamp
gigman
gigmanity
gig-mill
gigster
raising gig
side gig
tub-gig
whirligig