Jig

How to spell jig

3 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce jig

What does jig mean?

1. nounA lively, springy folk dance, or the brisk tune played for it.
2. nounA weighted fishing lure that is jerked up and down in the water to attract fish.
3. nounA device that holds a workpiece and guides a tool to ensure accurate, repeatable cuts or drilling.

Jig in a sentence

• The band struck up a fast jig and the whole hall began to dance.

• He tied a heavy jig to the line and dropped it near the rocks.

• The carpenter built a jig so every shelf bracket lined up exactly.

• She learned a traditional Irish jig at the village class.

• A brightly coloured jig works well for catching cod in deep water.

• Using a drilling jig keeps every hole at the same depth and spacing.

Where does jig come from?

Language of origin: French

Jig is a short, lively word whose origins are not entirely settled, which is why dictionaries usually mark it as uncertain. It surfaced in English in the 1500s as the name for a brisk, springy dance and for the quick tune that went with it. Many scholars connect it to the Old French word giguer, meaning 'to leap, frolic, or gambol about', which may itself trace back to a Germanic source for a stringed instrument or a fiddle. The dance sense came first, and the energetic, jerky motion of the dance later lent its name to other bobbing, darting things: the weighted fishing lure that is twitched up and down, and the guiding fixture that holds a workpiece steady in a workshop. Because the word is so short and phonetic, its real difficulty for writers is not the spelling but remembering that it ends in a single hard -g rather than the softer -dge.

How the word is built

• jig (single root, no affixes)