Origins of the word 'Gig'

Subject: Origins of the word 'Gig'
From: GUEST,jjgor
Date: 13 May 03 - 12:13 PM

Can anyone tell me the origins of the word 'Gig'?

Subject: RE: Origins of the word 'Gig'
From: GUEST
Date: 13 May 03 - 12:18 PM

google search revealed
this

In which it is revealed that several centuries ago it carried the meanings "vagina" and "arsehole" - which begs a few questions......

Subject: RE: Origins of the word 'Gig'
From: MMario
Date: 13 May 03 - 12:18 PM

click

lots of theories.

Subject: RE: Origins of the word 'Gig'
From: GUEST,mink
Date: 13 May 03 - 12:22 PM

In UK usage it can (not common but I have heard it) be used to mean any job of work (usually a short term contract) or position of authority - not just musicianly. So maybe it derives from a slang term previously more general.

Subject: RE: Origins of the word 'Gig'
From: GUEST,Q
Date: 13 May 03 - 12:30 PM

The thread MMario cited (16724), as usual contains good as well as ludicrous information. The short of it- it went into print in 1926-1927, used by English musicians, signifying an engagement (OED). The rest is speculation.

Subject: RE: Origins of the word 'Gig'
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 13 May 03 - 02:28 PM

I invented it right after I wrote Whiskey In The Jar...

Subject: RE: Origins of the word 'Gig'
From: PoppaGator
Date: 13 May 03 - 03:11 PM

Since there is a French word "gigue" with a similar meaning, I lean toward the theory that the currently familiar usage of "gig" probably dates back to the earliest days of jazz in New Orleans.

Many of the first generation of jazz musicians were French-speaking and bilingual Creole "gens de couleur" (people of color). Seems to me that these would have been the guys to first use and popularize the term "gig" for musical job or engagement.

(Incidentally, these Creoles were much more likely to have received formal education, including musical education, than their English-speaking black and white contemporaries, and so had great influence in the formative years of jazz as bandleaders, etc.)

Subject: RE: Origins of the word 'Gig'
From: Jim Krause
Date: 13 May 03 - 03:12 PM

Hey Clint, me an' Jelly Roll Morton'll fight ya for the copyright. I could swear I heard him using that word when we were doin' a gig in Biloxi, back in 1904
Jim

Subject: RE: Origins of the word 'Gig'
From: Haruo
Date: 13 May 03 - 03:15 PM

How was/is it pronounced? I've always said it with a hard "g" as in "give", but if it's from New Orleans French I'd expect it to have a soft "g" as in "gin" in English (and a "zh" as in "rouge" in French).

Haruo

Subject: RE: Origins of the word 'Gig'
From: greg stephens
Date: 13 May 03 - 03:45 PM

I may be wrong, but I'm sure it started as a very narrow bit of musician's slang. The usage by other workers for a short term contract is recent...it's just other people wanting to be cool and hip like us musicians. The extension to mean the whole musical event is recent, as well, presumably for the same wannabe reasons. Gigs used to be what musicians got, not what punters went to.
   Whether it's originally French, English or American seems to be a matter nobody has satisfactorily settled.

Subject: RE: Origins of the word 'Gig'
From: GUEST,Q
Date: 13 May 03 - 04:11 PM

I vote for Clinton H.

The word gigue (Fr.) giga (It.) has had a peculiar history. Its earliest use was for a lute or fiddle (German geige = fiddle). It later came to mean "a piece of music of lively character...."
In English, it first appeared in print in 1685. "Airs for the violin, to wit, Preludes, Fuges [fugues], Allemands, Sarabands, Courants, Gigues." London Gazette. OED. Also see Grove's Dictionary of Music.

Subject: RE: Origins of the word 'Gig'
From: greg stephens
Date: 13 May 03 - 04:23 PM

That(1685) may be the first appearance of the word spelt "gigue" in English, but it was around earlier spelt jig(or possibly jigge).It is by no means clear whether it went from English to French, or vice versa, not to mention Italian or german. But in those days it didnt mean a job anyway: it meant all sorts of things, but not that.

Subject: RE: Origins of the word 'Gig'
From: GUEST,Q
Date: 13 May 03 - 06:08 PM

Jig, gigue is thread creep since these words have little to do with gig. Any supposed relationship between gigue and jig is speculative.

Jig (various spellings ) first appears in print in 1580. The OED observes that, its origin uncertain, it is "Often assumed to be identical with OF gigue, a kind of stringed instrument, a rude fiddle... but as to this there are difficulties: the OF word had none of the senses of jig, it was also obsolete long before jig is known to have existed..." [arguments presented here].
Jig has several meanings:
1. a lively, rapid, springy kind of dance. 1560.
2. the music for such a dance. 1588 (in Shakespeare).
3. A song or ballad of lively, jocular [etc.] character. 1570-1580. (Speaking of Scottish gigges or jigs- both spellings in the references of this date).
4. A lively performance, between acts or at the end of a play. 1592.
5. Jokes, jests, sport. 1592.
6. a name for various devices. 19th century.

Verb- some of its senses may have arisen differently from those of the noun.

Subject: RE: Origins of the word 'Gig'
From: JedMarum
Date: 13 May 03 - 06:28 PM

gig, simply short for engagement - easy.

French? New Orleans? Gig has a different meaning there ... you might gig for your dinner, but it wouldn't involve music!

;-)

Subject: RE: Origins of the word 'Gig'
From: Cluin
Date: 14 May 03 - 01:23 AM

It is "gig" spelled backwards.

Subject: RE: Origins of the word 'Gig'
From: GUEST
Date: 14 May 03 - 03:16 AM

WHAT HAPPENED TO THE BS RULE...THIS IS PURE DEE OLD BS

ON A SCALE OF 1 to 1,000,000 the actual music content is 1

Subject: RE: Origins of the word 'Gig'
From: sweetfire
Date: 14 May 03 - 03:27 AM

ok well more BS ,   'a gig' is also something which a horse pulls with you driving it in the seat behind.   I guess that doesn't really help though does it, just pointing out the word gig comes from other places too, i wonder which one came first....

Subject: RE: Origins of the word 'Gig'
From: Watson
Date: 14 May 03 - 06:36 AM

There are many words that we use every day that nobody knows - or can agree to - the origin of.
It's always useful to look at Michael Quinion's World Wide Words

Subject: RE: Origins of the word 'Gig'
From: Schantieman
Date: 14 May 03 - 06:44 AM

I vote for 'engagement'


Steve

Subject: RE: Origins of the word 'Gig'
From: MairSea
Date: 14 May 03 - 06:48 AM

Sorry folks - always thought it was short for 'God is Good - I have a booking tonight so therefore I can eat'! :-)

Subject: RE: Origins of the word 'Gig'
From: greg stephens
Date: 14 May 03 - 06:50 AM

perhaps it's from "engorgement" instead of "engagement"

Subject: RE: Origins of the word 'Gig'
From: Pied Piper
Date: 14 May 03 - 06:58 AM

Every one must know that it's from the Gaelic word gigaedh, meaning to dig or unravel, and is cognate with the Sanskrit gaga meaning to talk bollox.
PP

Subject: RE: Origins of the word 'Gig'
From: GUEST,Andrew
Date: 14 May 03 - 08:22 AM

More BS maybe but hell, the thread is here !

I seem to remember a gig is a communial boat in the Scilly Isles. Maybe they sang shanties on them !


Andrew

Subject: RE: Origins of the word 'Gig'
From: Jim the Bart
Date: 14 May 03 - 10:02 AM

It's funny how we all know what it means but we can't decide why it means what it does. I found a similar term applied to the playing of folk music recently that greatly intrigued me:

Can anyone tell me what "paying gig" means?

An inquiring mind wants to know
B.

Subject: RE: Origins of the word 'Gig'
From: MMario
Date: 14 May 03 - 10:07 AM

a musical engagement for which you recieve compensation in cash above and beyond your expenses.

Subject: RE: Origins of the word 'Gig'
From: MMario
Date: 14 May 03 - 10:22 AM

note: the above term 'paying gig' is obscure and used mostly in fantasy stories and fairy tales for young children.

Subject: RE: Origins of the word 'Gig'
From: GUEST,Martin Gibson
Date: 14 May 03 - 10:30 AM

What do you think the actor Gig Young would have said about all of this?

Subject: RE: Origins of the word 'Gig'
From: JennyO
Date: 14 May 03 - 11:26 AM

I think he would have had a gig - gle.

Subject: RE: Origins of the word 'Gig'
From: MikeofNorthumbria
Date: 14 May 03 - 11:34 AM

And a "world cup gig" is one where you get three tenners afterwards.

Wassail!

Subject: RE: Origins of the word 'Gig'
From: JennyO
Date: 14 May 03 - 11:40 AM

And if they feed you, is that a gig-a-byte?

Oh god, this is getting bad. Somebody stop me. Arghhhhh!

Subject: RE: Origins of the word 'Gig'
From: GUEST,Q
Date: 14 May 03 - 12:02 PM

This thread needs a jigglemeter (A device installed on contracted-out highway equipment here to determine hours of actual operation. The operator's pay depends on the time it jiggles).

Subject: RE: Origins of the word 'Gig'
From: Art Thieme
Date: 14 May 03 - 11:15 PM

All I know is that they would pop up on my calendar almost by magic. God knows, I sure didn't do much of anything to procure those. But sure enough, the phone would ring and there they would be---taking up all the space so I couldn't even find room to write down doctor apointments. Lately, though, there are none at all up there---and it's been that way for a long ol' time it seems. No matter, now I need all the space I can find for all the damn doctors apointments. --------- I guess I was just one very lucky guy !! ---- I'd go where they told me on the phone, I'd get on stage, open my mouth and sing into thin air, and I'd wind up going home with the RENT.

If that ain't alchemy, I don't know what is !!! ;-)

Art Thieme

Subject: RE: Origins of the word 'Gig'
From: Jim the Bart
Date: 15 May 03 - 03:49 PM

The key to getting the gold for the alchemist, of course, was to keep doing it til you got it right. And you certainly did that, Mr. Thieme as I will well attest any time. Unfortunately, many never even come close to getting it right and get more gold than they know what to do with - what a conundrum.

But as a friend of mine said so well in song:

It's not the money that drives us on
It's the moon and the rain and the blinding sun

Take care
Bart

Subject: RE: Origins of the word 'Gig'
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 26 Sep 03 - 08:11 PM

Amused with this, just have to say this..

With regard to "jig"

Have you heard the term

"Horizontal Folk Dancing"?

Robin

Subject: RE: Origins of the word 'Gig'
From: Charley Noble
Date: 26 Sep 03 - 08:32 PM

I've tried to ignore this thread but I'm really truly bored this evening and I might as well set you all straight. A gig is a ship's boat, more specifically "a light, narrow ship's boat, built for speed, originally clinker-built but within more recent years frequently of carvel construction, rowing four or six oars single-banked." In sea novels there's frequent references to the "Captain's gig."

Then, of course, we're all aware of Washington State's famous Gig Harbor on Puget Sound. I even stopped there a few years back to see if I could get booked. The only venue was the police station and I declined their offer.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Origins of the word 'Gig'
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 26 Sep 03 - 08:35 PM

Here's a link with another suggestion, taken from the Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang.

The udea is that it's linked with the menbaing of "gig" for a carriage, and that this comes from an earliuer meaning in whch a "gig" was used to mean something spinning, as in "whirligig". So the suggestion would be that it was applied to parties and dances, analogous to the expression "social whirl".

So you get to play at place where they are having a gig.

Well, it's as good an expalnation as any.

Subject: RE: Origins of the word 'Gig'
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 26 Sep 03 - 08:41 PM

Though perhaps more contrived than most.

Subject: RE: Origins of the word 'Gig'
From: GUEST,AR282
Date: 26 Sep 03 - 09:16 PM

Someone mentioned a capt.'s gig--a small motorboat on every Navy ship. The Navy also refers to something called "gig line." On a button-up shirt, the seam that forms along the edge of the buttons makes a straight line to the zipper of the pants so that when the shirt is tucked in, the seam of the button-edge is even with the zipper. This is your gig line. On ship it is customary to send new kids fresh out of school or boot camp on an errand to fetch 50 feet of gig line. They'll send the poor guy all over the ship for 2 hours--all day if it's a big ship. It's the oldest joke in the Navy (along with fetching sound-powered phone batteries) but some guy falls for it every time! You know who the geniuses are right off the bat.

Subject: RE: Origins of the word 'Gig'
From: Melani
Date: 26 Sep 03 - 10:15 PM

In Renaissance Faire terminology, "gig" has evolved to mean any bit of business in the street for the entertainment of customers.

Subject: RE: Origins of the word 'Gig'
From: Gurney
Date: 27 Sep 03 - 01:51 AM

Just posted to put these Gig threads together for a while...

Subject: RE: Origins of the word 'Gig'
From: GUEST,Pax.
Date: 27 Sep 03 - 03:23 AM

Has anybody gone "gigging" for frogs lately?
I understand that this means hunting for frogs with a sharp stick.

Subject: RE: Origins of the word 'Gig'
From: GUEST,stufiftytwo
Date: 17 Nov 07 - 10:57 AM

I was told the meaning of gig......... that session musicians would hang around waiting for work.......... when it came they said
                  God Is Great !!!!!!

Subject: RE: Origins of the word 'Gig'
From: Joe_F
Date: 17 Nov 07 - 08:17 PM

It don't go a goddam bit faster,
But it makes the old bastard feel big.

Subject: RE: Origins of the word 'Gig'
From: GUEST,reggie miles
Date: 18 Nov 07 - 02:22 PM

Derived from the word gig - giglet: A minor, usually low paying, musical or entertainment performance opportunity.

Subject: RE: Origins of the word 'Gig'
From: Rowan
Date: 19 Nov 07 - 02:18 AM

Now, if the Creoles invented the term, "gigue" would have sounded like "jig". And if the musos reckoned they'd been done over, that'd give new meaning to gigue-a-gigue; yes?