jig
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: enpr: jĭg
ipa: /d͡ʒɪɡ/
homophone: gig (one pronunciation)
rhymes: -ɪɡ
Forms: form: jigs
Etymology: Unknown. Derivation from Middle English gyge (“fiddle”), from Old French gigue (“a fiddle”) has been proposed, but the connection and sense development are obscure. The sense “a type of dance” of modern French gigue is borrowed from English.
Senses: topics: entertainment
lifestyle
music
glosses: A light, brisk musical movement; a gigue.
examples: text: They danced a jig.
text: Soon Marshall is doing an elaborate foot-to-foot jig, and then they're all bounding around. Shoulder dips. Yee-ha faces. It's an impromptu hoedown.
ref: 2012 November 15, Tom Lamont, “How Mumford & Sons became the biggest band in the world”, in The Daily Telegraph:
topics: dance
dancing
entertainment
hobbies
lifestyle
music
sports
glosses: A lively dance in 6/8 (double jig), 9/8 (slip jig) or 12/8 (single jig) time; a tune suitable for such a dance. By extension, a lively traditional tune in any of these time signatures. Unqualified, the term is usually taken to refer to a double (6/8) jig.
qualifier: traditional English Morris dance
glosses: A dance performed by one or sometimes two individual dancers, as opposed to a dance performed by a set or team.
examples: text: They were waked out of their bunks one black night by yells of "Squid O!" from Salters, and for an hour and a half every soul aboard hung over his squid-jig—a piece of lead painted red and armed at the lower end with a circle of pins bent backward like half-opened umbrella ribs.
ref: 1897, Rudyard Kipling, Captains Courageous:
topics: fishing
hobbies
lifestyle
glosses: A type of lure consisting of a hook molded into a weight, usually with a bright or colorful body.
examples: text: Cutting circles out of pinewood is best done with a compass-style jig.
text: The bodywork employs, where possible, the same constructional methods as for the standard B.R. coaching stock, in order to utilise existing jigs and press tools.
ref: 1959 March, “The 2,500 h.p. electric locomotives for the Kent Coast electrification”, in Trains Illustrated, page 125:
text: The craze for realism now led the toy manufacturers to try to make their models from still secret plans for the new cars. Should a car firm scrap its plans and jigs, the toy firm had to follow suit.
ref: 1971, Gwen White, Antique Toys And Their Background, page 90:
glosses: A device in manufacturing, woodworking, or other creative endeavors for controlling the location, path of movement, or both of either a workpiece or the tool that is operating upon it. Subsets of this general class include machining jigs, woodworking jigs, welders' jigs, jewelers' jigs, and many others.
topics: business
mining
glosses: An apparatus or machine for jigging ore.
examples: text: A jig shall be clapped at, and every rhyme / Praised and applauded by a clamorous chime.
ref: 1647, John Fletcher, Beaumont and Fletcher, The Fair Maid of the Inn:
glosses: A light, humorous piece of writing, especially in rhyme; a farce in verse; a ballad.
examples: text: This Innovation? Is't not a fine Jigg? / A precious cunning in the late Protector / To shuffle a new Prince into the State.
ref: 1635, James Shirley, The Coronation:
glosses: A trick; a prank.
Derived terms: dance the hempen jig
dance the Tyburn jig
drill jig
hangman's jig
in jig time
jig borer
jigger
jiggish
jiggity
jiggle
jiggy
jighead
jig-jig
jiglike
jig saw
jigsaw
jig show
one's jig is up
outjig
pocket-hole jig
the jig is up
thingamajig