gig

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See also: Gig

English[edit]

WOTD – 26 February 2022

Etymology 1[edit]

John Taylor and Simon Le Bon of the English new wave band Duran Duran performing at a gig (etymology 1, sense 1) in Gibraltar in 2015.
Delivering food is often a gig (etymology 1, sense 2) – a job done on an on-demand basis.

The etymology of the noun is unknown, but compare Old French gigue (“a fiddle”).[1] The verb is derived from the noun.[2]

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

gig (plural gigs) (informal)

  1. Originally (music), a performing engagement by a musician or musical group; (by extension, film, television, theater) a job or role for a performer.
    I caught one of the Rolling Stones’ first gigs in Richmond.
    Hey, when are we gonna get that hotel gig again?
  2. (by extension) Any job, especially one that is freelance or temporary, or done on an on-demand basis.
    I had this gig as a file clerk but it wasn’t my style so I left.
    That guy’s got a great gig over at the bike shop. He hardly works all day.
    • 2014 July 24, R. Z. Aklat, “Introduction”, in Become a Freelance Translator, [S.l.]: R. Z. Aklat, →ISBN:
      Whether you want to have some occasional translation gigs or turn freelance translating into your fulltime occupation, you'll need to know some essential things […]
    • 2016 January 11, Geoffrey Nunberg, “Fresh Air: Goodbye Jobs, Hello ‘Gigs’: How One Word Sums Up a New Economic Reality”, in NPR‎[1], archived from the original on 13 February 2022:
      In recent decades, "gig" has become just a hip term for any temporary job or stint, with the implication you're not particularly invested in it. I think of the barista or bookstore clerk who responds to my questions with a look that says, "Hey, man, it's a gig. I don't really DO this?" That tone of insouciance has made "the gig economy" the predominant name for what's being touted as the industrial revolution of our times.
  3. (US, military) A demerit received for some infraction of a military deportment or dress code.
    I received gigs for having buttons of my uniform undone.
Derived terms[edit]
Translations[edit]

Verb[edit]

gig (third-person singular simple present gigs, present participle gigging, simple past and past participle gigged) (informal)

  1. (transitive)
    1. (music) To play (a musical instrument) at a gig.
    2. (US, military) To impose a demerit (on someone) for an infraction of a military deportment or dress code.
      His sergeant gigged him for an unmade bunk.
  2. (intransitive)
    1. (film, music, television, theater) To engage in a musical performance, act in a theatre production, etc.
      The Rolling Stones were gigging around Richmond at the time.
    2. (by extension) To work at any job, especially one that is freelance or temporary, or done on an on-demand basis.
Derived terms[edit]
Translations[edit]

Etymology 2[edit]

A flash drive with a memory capacity of four gigs (gigabytes; etymology 2, sense 1).

Sense 1 is a clipping of gigabyte,[3] while sense 2 is a clipping of giga- (prefix multiplying the unit to which it is attached by one billion).

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

gig (plural gig or gigs)

  1. (informal, computing) Clipping of gigabyte (“one billion (1,000,000,000) bytes”).
    This picture is almost a gig; don’t you want to resize it?
    My new computer has over 500 gigs of hard drive space.
    • 2003, IT Professional's Guide to E-mail Administration, CNET Networks Inc., →ISBN, page 88:
      The restore would get through between 13 and 20 gigs of data, and then the tape would fail.
  2. (slang, chiefly sciences) Any unit of measurement having the SI prefix giga-.
Translations[edit]

Etymology 3[edit]

Modern whipping-tops, formerly known as gigs (etymology 3, sense 1).
An old-fashioned captain’s gig (etymology 3, sense 4.1.1).
The captain’s gig (etymology 3, sense 4.1.1) being raised back aboard the USS Nimitz supercarrier.
A six-oared pilot gig (etymology 3, sense 4.1.2) at St. Mary’s, Isles of Scilly.
A woman riding a gig (etymology 3, sense 4.2).

The noun is derived from Middle English gigg, gigge, gygge (“spinning object; a top”); further origin uncertain, possibly:

Senses 2–4 are thought to derive from sense 1 (“whipping-top”),[6] but their exact relationship is unclear.

The verb is derived from the noun.[7]

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

gig (plural gigs)

  1. (obsolete) 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.
    • 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]:
      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.
      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.
    • 1695, [John Locke], “§130”, in Some Thoughts Concerning Education. […], 3rd edition, London: […] A[wnsham] and J[ohn] Churchill, […], →OCLC, page 241:
      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.
    • 1782, William Cowper, “Hope”, in Poems, London: […] J[oseph] Johnson, […], →OCLC, page 151:
      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.
  2. (chiefly British, school slang (Eton College), archaic or dialectal) A person with an odd appearance; also, a foolish person.
  3. Senses relating to enjoyment.
    1. (slang, archaic or British, dialectal) Fun; frolics.
      • 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:
        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,—
    2. (obsolete) A fanciful impulse; a whim; also, a joke.
  4. Senses relating to vehicles.
    1. (nautical)
      2. A small, narrow, open boat carried in a larger ship, and used for transportation between the ship and the shore, another vessel, etc.
        • 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:
          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.
        • 1979, Stan Rogers (lyrics and music), “The Flowers of Bermuda” (track 6), in Between the Breaks … Live!, Dundas, Ont.: Fogarty’s Cove Music:
          The captain's gig still lies before ye whole and sound, / It shall carry all o' we.
      3. (Southern England, by extension) 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.
    2. (road transport, historical) A two-wheeled carriage drawn by a single horse.
      • 1813 January 27, [Jane Austen], chapter VII, in Pride and Prejudice: […], volume II, London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC, page 77:
        While Sir William was with them, Mr. Collins devoted his mornings to driving him out in his gig, and shewing him the country; […]
      • 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:
        Here a coach thundered over the pavement, and there an unwieldy omnibus, with spruce gigs rattling past, and horsemen prancing through all the bustle.
      • 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:
        [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.
      • 1967, William Styron, “Judgment Day”, in The Confessions of Nat Turner, New York, N.Y.: Random House, →OCLC, page 77:
        [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.
Derived terms[edit]
Translations[edit]
foolish person — see fool
fun; frolics — see fun,‎ frolic

Verb[edit]

gig (third-person singular simple present gigs, present participle gigging, simple past and past participle gigged)

  1. (transitive) To make a joke, often condescendingly, at the expense of (someone); to make fun of.
    His older cousin was just gigging him about being in love with that girl from school.
  2. (intransitive) Sometimes followed by it: to ride in a gig (“a two-wheeled carriage drawn by a single horse”).
Translations[edit]

Etymology 4[edit]

From Middle English gig, gigge, gegge,[8] possibly either:

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

gig (plural gigs)

  1. (obsolete) A frivolous, playful, or wanton young woman; a giglet or giglot.
    Synonym: fizgig

Etymology 5[edit]

A gig (etymology 5), also known as a fishgig or fizgig.

The noun is derived from a clipping of fishgig, fizgig,[10] possibly from Spanish fisga (“harpoon”).

The verb is derived from the noun.[11]

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

gig (plural gigs)

  1. (fishing) Synonym of fishgig or fizgig (“a spear with a barb on the end of it, used for catching fish, frogs, or other small animals”).
    • 1997, Charles Frazier, Cold Mountain, London: Hodder and Stoughton, page 122:
      On toward dusk some little gypsy boys whittled gigs from river-birch limbs and went to a backwater and gigged frogs until they had a basketful.
Translations[edit]
synonym of fishgig or fizgig — see fizgig

Verb[edit]

gig (third-person singular simple present gigs, present participle gigging, simple past and past participle gigged) (fishing)

  1. (transitive) To spear (fish, etc.) with a gig or fizgig.
  2. (intransitive) To catch or fish with a gig or fizgig.
Derived terms[edit]
Translations[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ “gig, n.6”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, December 2021; “gig1, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
  2. ^ “gig, v.7”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, March 2019; “gig1, v.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
  3. ^ “gig2, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
  4. ^ Compare “whirl-gig, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 “gig, n.1”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, December 2020.
  6. ^ “gig, n.2”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, March 2021; “gig3, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
  7. ^ “gig, v.6”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, September 2018.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 “ǧig(ge, n.(1)”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
  9. ^ The Oxford English Dictionary doubts that the word is related to gig: “† gegge, n.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, December 2021.
  10. ^ “gig, n.4”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, June 2018; “gig4, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
  11. ^ “gig, v.5”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, September 2018; “gig4, v.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Further reading[edit]

See also[edit]

Anagrams[edit]

Sumerian[edit]

Romanization[edit]

gig

  1. Romanization of 𒍼 (gig)

Swedish[edit]

Etymology[edit]

Borrowed from English gig.

Noun[edit]

gig n

  1. a gig (concert)
    Synonyms: spelning, framträdande

Declension[edit]

Declension of gig 
Singular Plural
Indefinite Definite Indefinite Definite
Nominative gig giget gig gigen
Genitive gigs gigets gigs gigens

References[edit]

Welsh[edit]

Noun[edit]

gig

  1. Soft mutation of cig (“meat”).

Mutation[edit]

Welsh mutation
radical soft nasal aspirate
cig gig nghig chig
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.

Zhuang[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Etymology 1[edit]

Borrowed from Chinese 極 (MC gik).

Adverb[edit]

gig (Sawndip form 亟, 1957–1982 spelling gig)

  1. extremely; highly; very

Etymology 2[edit]

Borrowed from Chinese 激 (MC kek).

Verb[edit]

gig (1957–1982 spelling gig)

  1. to provoke; to agitate
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