jig/gig

[Arnold M. Zwicky]

On Sep 19, 2007, at 7:04 AM, Jim Parish wrote:

> Wilson Gray wrote:
>> 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?
>
> I heard it used around 1970, by a person who had been born in the late
> 1940s. I haven't heard it since, though.

even back in the 60s it sounded rather quaint:


Colored Spade (from Hair -- opened on Broadway in 1968)

I'm a
Colored spade
A nigra
A black nigger
A jungle bunny
Jigaboo coon
Pickaninny mau mau

Uncle Tom
Aunt Jemima
Little Black Sambo

Cotton pickin'
Swamp guinea
Junk man
Shoeshine boy

Elevator operator
Table cleaner at Horn & Hardart
Slave voodoo
Zombie
Ubangi lipped

Flat nose
Tap dancin'
Resident of Harlem

And president of
The United States of Love
President of
The United States of Love

(and if you ask this man to dinner you're gonna have to feed him:)

Watermelon
Hominy grits
An' shortnin' bread
Alligator ribs
Some pig tails
Some black eyed peas
Some chili
Some collard greens

And if you don't watch out
This boogie man will get you
Booooooooo!






>
> Jim Parish
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org