English

Noun

jig ‎(plural jigs)

1. (music) A light, brisk musical movement; a gigue.
2. (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.

   they danced a jig

   • 2012, Tom Lamont, How Mumford & Sons became the biggest band in the world (in The Daily Telegraph, 15 November 2012)

     Soon Marshall is doing an elaborate foot-to-foot jig, and then they're all bounding around. Shoulder dips. Yee-ha faces. It's an impromptu hoedown.

3. (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.
4. (fishing) A type of lure consisting of a hook molded into a weight, usually with a bright or colorful body.
5. 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.

   Cutting circles out of pinewood is best done with a compass-style jig.

6. (mining) An apparatus or machine for jigging ore.
7. (obsolete) A light, humorous piece of writing, especially in rhyme; a farce in verse; a ballad.
   • (Can we date this quote?) Beaumont and Fletcher

     A jig shall be clapped at, and every rhyme / Praised and applauded.

8. (obsolete) A trick; a prank.
   • (Can we date this quote?) Beaumont and Fletcher

     Is't not a fine jig, / A precious cunning, in the late Protector?

Derived terms

• jigsaw
• the jig is up
• dance the hempen jig

Translations

Verb

jig ‎(third-person singular simple present jigs, present participle jigging, simple past and past participle jigged)

1. To move briskly, especially as a dance.

   The guests were jigging around on the dancefloor

2. To move with a skip or rhythm; to move with vibrations or jerks.
   • Rudyard Kipling

     The fin would jig off slowly, as if it were looking for nothing at all.

3. (fishing) To fish with a jig.
4. To sing to the tune of a jig.
   • Shakespeare

     Jig off a tune at the tongue's end.

5. To trick or cheat; to cajole; to delude.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Ford to this entry?)

6. (mining) To sort or separate, as ore in a jigger or sieve.
7. To cut or form, as a piece of metal, in a jigging machine.

Translations

Etymology 2

Clipping of jigaboo,^[1] of uncertain origin, perhaps an African word. Alternatively, jigaboo is derived from jig ‎(“dance”).

1. (offensive, slang, dated) A black person
   • 2011, Andrew Lithgow, Retribution, ISBN 978-1-257-63649-5, page 228:

     “…Lucky for me he wasn’t a jig, otherwise I couldn’t have done it.”
     “Jig?”
     “Nigger. Afro American.” His voice was heavy with sarcasm.

1. (offensive, slang, dated) Any dark-skinned person (frequently an Arab or Middle Eastern person).

References

1. ↑ Tony Thorne ((Can we date this quote?)) Dictionary of Contemporary Slang, pages 240

Lojban

Rafsi

jig

1. rafsi of jinga.