Let’s dance

November 3rd, 2009 at 07:00am Barry Wood

“The jig is up” is a slang phrase “said of risky or improper activity,” according to Webster’s. This association reflects its origin, which “American Slang” puts at sometime after 1800 as another way of saying, “The criminal enterprise is discovered.”

Its current definition is “that ends it; all chances for success are gone.”

It’s sometimes written improperly as “The gig is up.” There are actually four separate “gigs” in Webster’s, but none is a good fit for the phrase. (I’ll look at the gig family tomorrow.)

How the word “jig” was chosen for it isn’t exactly clear either. In fact, even its association with dancing is speculative. The dictionary says it probably came from the Middle French “giguer,” meaning “to gambol, dance,” which came from “gigue,” “a fiddle.”

The jig is “a fast, springy sort of dance, usually in triple time.” Its motionĀ also inspired “jigsaw” and “jiggle,” which is what Jell-O does.
I wasn’t sure I could fit that in, but apparently there is always room for Jell-O.

Entry Filed under: word choices, word origins