"Laying giggy"

George Thompson george.thompson at NYU.EDU
Fri Feb 22 00:34:49 UTC 2002


A letter appeared in this morning's (Thursday's) Daily News asking
for "where and how certain expressions started" that the writer, "an
old geezer" from the Red Hook area of Brooklyn, remembers.

"When were were kids in the early 30's -- and sneakily shooting dice in
the street -- we would have a lookout stationed at a strategic spot.
This lookout would be classified as "laying giggy.""

This isn't in HDAS or DARE.  I do see in HDAS that one of the meanings
of the word "gig" is "eye", with one citation from 1925.  Was perhaps
the kid who was "Laying giggy" thought of as a "eye" for the other kids?

He also asked about "cheese it!", which is in HDAS.

GAT

George A. Thompson
Author of A Documentary History of "The African
Theatre", Northwestern Univ. Pr., 1998.



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