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Etymology and origin of the French word gigue

gigue1 leg, haunch

Confidence
Probable
Formation
Back-formation
First attested
1650 Ménage
Ultimate origin
Old High German gīga

Pronunciation

Forms

gigue f (plural gigues)[1]

Etymology

The word for the leg is a back-formation from French gigot, remade on the model of cuissot beside cuisse.[2][3][4][5] The TLFi thinks it was probably also helped by the older word for the fiddle.[2] That word is generally explained as a derivative of Old French gigue (“three-stringed instrument”), from the likeness in shape, and that word is from Old High German gīga (“stringed instrument”);[3][5] P. Guiraud instead derives the noun for the leg of mutton from Old French giguer (“to frisk, kick the legs”).[3]

Littré called the word of unknown origin, rejected a Celtic source as very uncertain, and recorded the word for a tall, lanky person in Geneva and Lorraine.[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Ménage records it in 1650: he calls gigot a diminutive of gigue “thigh”, notes grande gigue for a big thigh in Anjou, and says that in Normandy and Paris la grande gigue was said of a tall, thin and lively girl.[2][3]

Semantic evolution

The same year it meant a cheerful, playful girl, a sense probably linked to giguer “to frisk”;[2][3][7] the GLLF dates this sense 1662 and the general sense “thigh, leg” 1655 (Borel).[8] Grande gigue “tall, thin girl” has lasted to the present.[9][10] In hunting and cooking it has meant the haunch of an animal, especially of a roe deer, since 1838.[3][8]

Timeline

  • 1650 – Ménage records gigue “thigh” and grande gigue.[2][3]
  • 1650 – Richer's Ovide bouffon uses it for a lively girl.[2][7]
  • 1704 – The Trévoux dictionary records it for a long leg.[8]
  • 1838 – Gigue de chevreuil is recorded.[3][2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (familiar, dated) A leg, especially a long one: il a de grandes gigues.[9][2][10]
  2. (hunting, cooking) The haunch of certain animals, especially the roe deer: gigue de chevreuil.[9][10][2]
  3. Grande gigue: a tall, thin girl.[9][10][11]

gigue2 dance

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1650 Ménage
Borrowed from
English jig
Ultimate origin
Middle French giguer
Etymology tree of gigue2
inherited borrowed derived
English jig
French gigue
From the same root · gigue2
English jigsaw ← jig
English thingamajig ← jig

Pronunciation

Forms

gigue f (plural gigues)[1] Anglo-Norman gige, gigye “fiddle” (about 1200).[12]

Etymology

The word for the dance is borrowed from English jig (“lively dance, its tune”), recorded in English from 1560 and of uncertain origin.[2][3][4][13] The English word may itself come from Old French gigue (“fiddle”), perhaps through the Middle French verb giguer (“to frolic”), but the TLFi finds this unproven;[2][3][13] Bloch and Wartburg and the GLLF derive the English word from the stem of that verb.[5][8] Once in French, the word was in any case felt to belong with that verb of gambolling.[3]

The Old French name of the bowed stringed instrument is recorded from about 1120–1150 and is from Old High German gīga, which glosses Latin tricordum in 12th-century glosses;[2][5] the same word gave German Geige (“violin”).[6][13] Littré compares Occitan gigua, Spanish giga and Italian giga.[6][14]

Earliest recorded meaning

Ménage records it in 1650 for a lively piece for the lute, and Costar uses it in his letters of 1658.[2][5]

Semantic evolution

In the 17th and 18th centuries the gigue was a fast theatre dance in triple time, and it became one of the movements of the instrumental suite.[9][8] By metonymy it is also the tune for the dance.[2][6] The familiar phrase danser la gigue, to jig about or fidget, is found from 1866 (Verlaine).[8][9] The verb giguer “to dance a jig”, recorded in 1841, has gone out of use.[3]

Timeline

  • c. 1120–1150 – Old French gigue “fiddle” is first recorded.[2][7]
  • 1560 – English jig is recorded.[3][4]
  • 1650 – Ménage records gigue for a lively lute piece.[2]
  • 1658 – Costar uses it in his letters.[2][5]
  • 1841 – Giguer “to dance a jig” is recorded.[3]
  • 1866 – Danser la gigue “to fidget” appears in Verlaine.[8]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A lively dance from Britain or Ireland, in fast compound time, also the tune for it: a jig.[2][10][9]
  2. (music) The fast final movement of the baroque instrumental suite.[9][8]
  3. (familiar) Danser la gigue: to jump about, fidget.[9][10][11]
  4. (history) A medieval bowed stringed instrument, an ancestor of the violin.[10][2]
  • gigot
  • gigoter
  • English jig

Usage notes

The Grand Robert and the Petit Robert number the leg as gigue 1 and the dance as gigue 2;[4][9] the TLFi gives the medieval instrument a separate headword before them.[2]

References

  1. ^ a b c d 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 Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  4. ^ a b c d Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
  5. ^ a b c d e f Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
  6. ^ a b c d Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
  7. ^ a b c Quemada, Bernard, ed. (1959–2006), Datations et documents lexicographiques (Base historique du vocabulaire français, BHVF), Paris: Klincksieck / CNRS / Champion; ATILF
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
  9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  10. ^ a b c d e f g Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)
  11. ^ a b Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)
  12. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
  13. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  14. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Gigue.” Etymologically, 15 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/fr/gigue. Accessed 15 Nov. 2026.

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