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Topic: Origin of the word 'Gig' |
clive swindell
From:
Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, UK
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Posted 3 Oct 2006 1:02 am |
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A young friend asked me the origin of the word 'Gig' the other day and I couldn't answer him.
I seem to recall knowing the answer once but I have forgotten!
Can anyone help? |
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Bill Hatcher
From:
Atlanta Ga. USA
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Posted 3 Oct 2006 2:17 am
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| Short for "engagement". |
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Rich Jackson
From:
Cleveland, Tennessee, USA
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Posted 3 Oct 2006 3:30 am
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It's a gathering of musicans or so I was told. Makes sense  Rich
------------------
Emmons Holly Red LeGrande III 2006
And a GFI, Nashville 1000,
Dan Electro effects
http://usera.imagecave.com/Richguy/Richssteel.jpg [This message was edited by Rich Jackson on 03 October 2006 at 04:40 AM.] [This message was edited by Rich Jackson on 03 October 2006 at 04:42 AM.] |
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Tony Davis
From:
Brisbane, QLD, Australia
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Posted 3 Oct 2006 4:04 am
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Yeh Clive.....its short for Giglature...or Giglamentory.....which according to the Outer Gibbrovia International Three page World Acclaimed Dictionary means a Gaggle of Gibbering Gossiping Gibbrovian Gigging Musiscians.........well you never believe me when we meet face to face......so why should you believe me now......actually I do know the origin...but I am not telling !!!!!
Tony
Tony !!!! |
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Will Holtz
From:
San Francisco, California, USA
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Posted 3 Oct 2006 6:39 am
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| The OED list the origin as 'unknown' and the earlist print usage it notes is 1926. |
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Barry Blackwood
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Posted 3 Oct 2006 6:54 am
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| It's actually a derivation of the better-known word 'gig,' only spelled backwards .... |
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Richard Cooper
From:
Eads,TN,USA
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Posted 3 Oct 2006 6:55 am
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That's how you catch bull frogs down here.
So I guess Bubby came up with it. |
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James Sission
From:
Sugar Land,Texas USA
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Posted 3 Oct 2006 7:04 am
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Here some interesting information from Michael Quinion:
The term is usually taken to be of American origin, but the interesting thing is that the first two citations in the Oxford English Dictionary are from a London publication, Melody Maker, in 1926 and 1927. So the word in this sense has long been known in Britain.
Gig is yet another of those words for which researchers can give no firm origin, and what follows is largely supposition, following the leads given by Dr Jonathan Lighter in the Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang.
The oldest sense of gig was of something that whirled or turned (as in whirligig); much later it was applied to a fast two-wheeled carriage, presumably because its big wheels went around quickly, and later to a fast ship’s boat. There are many other senses.
From the 1840s in the US, Mr Lighter shows it also applied to a form of betting, involving a set of three or five numbers selected by the bettor. From his examples, it seems the winning numbers were drawn from a rotating device, called a wheel, presumably like a lottery or tombola drum, which must be the link to the name. By the beginning of the twentieth century, Mr Lighter suggests the word had begun to be applied more generally to a business, state of affairs, or an undertaking or event. This may have been influenced by a similar sense of gag that had come into being by the 1890s.
However, the great majority of Mr Lighter’s examples in this sense date from 1957 or later, with only one from 1907 to suggest that it pre-dated the application of gig to an engagement to perform live music. This is why dictionaries are cautious about accepting this sequence of development of the word, even though it seems to be plausible.
These days, gig can have a wide range of senses, including a fairly new one that refers to any short-term paying commission or job; it need not be associated with music or performance, but it does preclude permanent full-time employment.
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CrowBear Schmitt
From:
Ariege, - PairO'knees, - France
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Posted 3 Oct 2006 7:20 am
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i remember readin' here quite a few moons back about the origin of gig
perhaps it was Jimbeaux that mentioned somethin' about that ol' dance from France called a Gigue or Jig in Ireland ?
i would think that the word came from black musicians since they created much of the musical slang & terms in use since way back |
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chris ivey
From:
california (deceased)
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Posted 3 Oct 2006 10:13 am
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| gigolo ?? |
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Jim Bob Sedgwick
From:
Clinton, Missouri USA
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Posted 3 Oct 2006 11:44 am
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| Chris!!!! You know that's wishful thinking> |
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Terry Wood
From:
Lebanon, MO
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Posted 3 Oct 2006 12:11 pm
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Well, I don't know about the origins of the word, but I never heard it until I started pickin' on the road with Nashvul pickers.
Next, question that I'd like to know would be when was the first time ya'll ever heard the word. Like someone posted earlier, here when used the word to gig fish or frogs. Them frog legs were pretty good when I was a youngster.
Terry |
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Tucker Jackson
From:
Portland, Oregon, USA
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Lee Baucum
From:
McAllen, Texas (Extreme South) The Final Frontier
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Posted 3 Oct 2006 1:54 pm
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Giggle
A gaggle of geese and a giggle of musicians. |
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Rick McDuffie
From:
Benson, North Carolina, USA
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Chip Fossa
From:
Monson, MA, USA (deceased)
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Posted 3 Oct 2006 6:57 pm
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The word "jig" also has been used and confused with "gig". I've seen it many, erronously times used in place of "gig".
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David L. Donald
From:
Koh Samui Island, Thailand
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Posted 3 Oct 2006 7:58 pm
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What Crowbear said, is I believe the original origin.
La dance Gigue, for the anglophones Jig.
A Gigue of course requiered musicians
for the gig. |
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