Versatile, but obscure

November 5th, 2009 at 07:00am Barry Wood

The first “gig” to make its way into modern English took a long road. Its most recent ancestor is the Middle English “gigge,” meaning “whirligig,” which is mainly a spinning toy or a merry-go-round.

That one probably descended from Scandinavian words, such as the Danish “gig” — “whirling object” or “top” — and the Norwegian dialectical “giga” — “to shake, totter.”

The same Indo-European base, “ghei-,” meaning “to gape,” is also the ultimate origin of “gape” in English, as well as “giggle.”

This “gig” has three specialized definitions in modern English:

“A light, two-wheeled, open carriage drawn by one horse.”

“A long, light ship’s boat, especially one reserved for the commanding officer.”

“A machine for raising nap on cloth” — from the term “gig mill.”

That “nap” is “the downy or hairy surface of cloth,” which sometimes has to be artificially raised by brushing — as with a gig mill.

The sleeping kind of “nap” — my favorite hobby — has the following lineage: from Middle English “nappen” from Old English “hnappian,” akin to Old High German “hnaffezan” — which sort of looks like an attempt to spell a snoring noise.

Whew, I’m pooped. Time to get back to my hobby.

Entry Filed under: word origins