jig

Etymology

Its origin is uncertain.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} Merriam-Webster and Partridge take it as borrowed from Middle French giguer (“to dance, frolic, gambol”),^[7][8] which they take from gigue (“fiddle”), a word of Germanic origin related to Old High German gīga (“fiddle”);^[7][8][9] Barnhart thinks the verb possibly borrowed from the French verb and the noun of uncertain origin.^[9] Etymonline suggests instead gigge (“fiddle”), from Old French gigue,^[3] the source of gigue, Spanish giga, Italian giga and German Geige (“violin”).^[3][10] The OED points out difficulties: the Old French gigue had none of the senses of jig and was obsolete before jig appears, and modern French gigue as a dance is said to be borrowed from English.^[2] It suggests that the syllable has been felt as a natural expression of jerking movement, as in jiggle and jog.^[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A lively, springy dance: about 1560, in the poems of Alexander Scott.^[2][9][7]

Semantic evolution

From the dance the word spread in the late 16th century to its music (1593),^[2][3] to a lively or mocking ballad (1570 to 1700) and to a comic afterpiece performed at the end of a play (before 1592).^[2][11] A jig was also a joke or trick (1592), a sense that survives in the jig is up, recorded by 1777 as the jig is over.^[2][3][12] The verb, first to sing or play as a jig in Shakespeare's Love's Labour's Lost,^[2][9] was used by 1604, in Hamlet, of jerky up-and-down movement.^[2][7] Hoad derives the 19th-century names of mechanical devices from this verb:^[4][13] a machine for separating ore by shaking it in water (1849), a fishing lure jerked up and down (1846), and since 1875 a general name for various contrivances,^[2][3][9] especially, from 1894, one that holds a workpiece and guides a tool.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1560 – a lively, springy dance.^[2][9][7]
• 1570 – a lively or mocking ballad (obsolete by 1700).^[2]
• before 1592 – a comic entertainment at the end of a play (obsolete).^[2]
• 1592 – a joke or trick.^[2][3]
• 1593 – the music for a jig.^[2]
• 1598 – verb, to sing or play as a jig.^[2] Barnhart dates the same use in Love's Labour's Lost to 1588.^[9]
• 1604 – verb, to move up and down with a rapid jerky motion.^[2][7]
• 1846 – a device for catching fish.^[2] Barnhart dates it to 1858.^[9]
• 1849 – a machine for separating ore.^[2]
• 1875 – a name for various mechanical contrivances.^[2][3]
• 1894 – a device that guides a tool or positions a workpiece.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A lively folk dance with leaping steps, originally of the British Isles: They danced a jig at the wedding.^[13][7][2]
2. Music for such a dance, usually in six-eight time; a gigue.^[13][7][2]
3. A device that holds a workpiece in place and guides a cutting or drilling tool.^[13][2]
4. A fishing lure that is jerked up and down in the water.^[13][2][7]
5. A device for separating ore from waste by shaking it in water; a jigger.^[13][2]
6. the jig is up: the game is over; a trick or scheme has been found out.^[2][3][12]
7. (obsolete) A joke or prank.^[13][2]

Verb

1. To dance a jig, or move in a lively, jerky way: The children jigged around the bonfire.^[7][2]
2. To move something quickly up and down or to and fro.^[7][2][11]
3. To fish with a jig.^[7][2]
4. To separate ore with a jig.^[2][7]

Word family

• jigger
• thingamajig
• jiggle
• jigsaw
• rejig

Related words

• jog
• gigue

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ a b Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
9. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
10. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
11. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
13. ^ a b c d e f g Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins