jig/gig

[Laurence Urdang]

I thought the CBC piece was well done (though it would have been better had they defined the nautical jibe correctly).  It didn't solve the problem, and the solution proposed for the CBC was not entirely satisfactory, unless one accepts, "We'll try harder in the future to get it right" when the allowance of a simple "[sic]" here and there in a report would have been appropriate.
  L. Urdang
  Old Lyme

"Arnold M. Zwicky" <zwicky at CSLI.STANFORD.EDU> wrote:
  ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: "Arnold M. Zwicky"
Subject: Re: jig/gig
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On Sep 18, 2007, at 6:41 AM, Larry Urdang wrote:

> What I would qualify for inclusion in the burgeoning list of
> Fractured Idioms is the recently heard, "the gig is up."
> "The jig is up" has cites going back to the 18th century, but it
> must be admitted that today, "the gig is up" has more meaning to
> those familiar with the entertainment business. Danse macabre
> there somewhere?

comment in the forum pages of the ecdb, 6/28/07:

My business partner (twice in one client meeting!) said “the gig is
up.” Of course, she meant “the jig is up.” (She wasn’t saying it in
the second person, so it’s not like readers of this post are second-
hand witnesses to a messy confrontation. I’m sure you’re relieved!).
Check the link below for elucidation.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/indepth/words/gigjig.html

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the CBC story is about a canadian politician who said (and apparently
meant) "the gig is up" but had her words changed in the CBC report
to "the jig is up".

arnold

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