jig/gig

[Jonathan Lighter]

I find over 130,000 raw Googlits for "jig(g)aboo."

  JL

RonButters at AOL.COM wrote:
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Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: RonButters at AOL.COM
Subject: jig/gig
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In a message dated 9/18/07 6:44:47 PM, hwgray at GMAIL.COM writes:


> Surely, "jig(aboo)" = black, colored, Negro, African-American, etc,.
> etc., has not been
> resurrected?! I don't think that I've ever heard it in the wild. I
> know it only from literature and the movies. Or am I mistaken in
> assuming that it ever died, in the first place?
>
> -Wilson
>

Everyone I can think of who actually used it is now dead. People born around
the time of WWI. They used it somewhat pejoratively (i.e, I don't think they
would have normally said it to anyone's face), as I recall, but they had much
more offensive pejoratives in their wordstock.

The fact that JL found it in Wikipedia does not necessarily indicate that it
is still very much in use. The authors of the entry may just be citing what
are, even for them, archaic terms. Or maybe the authors are just very old. They
are obviously not very educated.


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