Definition jig
Etymology 1
An assimilated form of earlier gig, from Middle English gigge, from Old French gige, gigue (“a fiddle, kind of dance”), from Frankish *gīge (“dance, fiddle”), from Proto-Germanic *gīganą (“to move, wish, desire”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰeyǵʰ-, *gʰeygʰ- (“to yawn, gape, long for, desire”). Cognate with Middle Dutch ghighe (“fiddle”), German Geige (“fiddle, violin”), Danish gige (“fiddle”), Icelandic gígja (“fiddle”). More at gig, geg.
Noun
jig (plural jigs)
- (music) A light, brisk musical movement; a gigue.
- (traditional Irish music and dance) 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.
- (traditional English Morris dancing) A dance performed by one or sometimes two individual dancers, as opposed to a dance performed by a set or team.
- (fishing) A type of lure consisting of a hook molded into a weight, usually with a bright or colorful body.
- 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.
- (mining) An apparatus or machine for jigging ore.
- (obsolete) A light, humorous piece of writing, especially in rhyme; a farce in verse; a ballad.
- (obsolete) A trick; a prank.
Verb
jig (third-person singular simple present jigs, present participle jigging, simple past and past participle jigged)
- To move briskly, especially as a dance.
- To move with a skip or rhythm; to move with vibrations or jerks.
- (fishing) To fish with a jig.
- To sing to the tune of a jig.
- To trick or cheat; to cajole; to delude.
- (mining) To sort or separate, as ore in a jigger or sieve.
- To cut or form, as a piece of metal, in a jigging machine.
Etymology 2
Clipping of jigaboo, of uncertain origin, perhaps an African word. Alternatively, jigaboo is derived from jig (“dance”).
Noun
jig (plural jigs)
- (US, offensive, slang, dated) A black person.