The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #100788 Message #2026438
Posted By: GUEST,282RA
15-Apr-07 - 11:44 PM
Thread Name: BS: 'nappy headed hos' what does it mean?
Subject: RE: BS: 'nappy headed hos' what does it mean?
I have heard that jig as a perjorative has a different derivation than jigaboo. Jig was the same as a dance such an Irish jig. This came about in the 1870s and 80s in America and was quite popular. It was called "jig piano" because people danced jigs to it. IOW, it was a very early form of rocknroll where people cut loose and let it all hang out. Not stately ballroom waltzing but far more sensual and "scandalous." Since blacks were the primary players of jig piano and its primary fans, the word jig began being applied to blacks in general (although it had a not insignificant white fan base also).
Jig piano then gave way to ragtime piano in the 1890s but the word jig remained, probably because it was so close to jigaboo.