the jig is up

[Jonathan Lighter]

We've discussed the pseudo-racist origin of the "the jig is up."

By sheer coincidence, two young whippersnapper professionals in their '40s
were incredulous on Saturday when the phrase arose and I stupidly
explained that the "usual" version was "The jig is up."

They insisted that "gig" was correct, because (get ready) "What's 'jig'
mean? A jigsaw? What sense does that make?" My explanation that a "jig" was
a kind of dance was greeted with suspicion. "Nobody says, 'The  dance is
up.' They say 'The dance is over.'"

Kids today.

 JL

On Sun, Apr 10, 2011 at 11:27 PM, Neal Whitman <nwhitman at ameritech.net>wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Neal Whitman <nwhitman at AMERITECH.NET>
> Subject:      Re: the jig is up
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> My dad once told me about an ethnic joke that went around during his
> high-school days in south Georgia in the 1950s. I won't repeat it here; the
> relevant part is that it was about the first black astronaut, and the
> punchline was "the jig is up."
>
> Neal Whitman
> Email: nwhitman at ameritech.net
> Blog: http://literalminded.wordpress.com
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Charles C Doyle" <cdoyle at UGA.EDU>
> To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Sent: Sunday, April 10, 2011 8:29 PM
> Subject: Re: the jig is up
>
>
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail
> > header -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       Charles C Doyle <cdoyle at UGA.EDU>
> > Subject:      Re: the jig is up
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > Two points, possibly not altogether relevant:  [1] "gig" is an old
> > spelling of "jig" (the dance), presumably pronounced the same.  [2] Could
> > "the jig is up" possibly be deemed some sort of a racial slur (or
> > something that might be so perceived, like "niggard," thence best
> > avoided)?
> >
> > --Charlie
> >
> > ________________________________________
> > From: American Dialect Society [ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] on behalf of
> > victor steinbok [aardvark66 at GMAIL.COM]
> > Sent: Sunday, April 10, 2011 3:37 PM
> >
> >
> > Spotted from ABC news (quoting an anonymous aid):
> >
> >> [Republicans] realized that kind of the gig was up.
> >
> > 205K raw for "the gig is up", 356K raw for "the jig is up"
> > Similarly, 56K raw for "the gig was up" and 135K for "the jig was up"
> >
> > I thought, perhaps, that there might have been some legitimately
> > independent uses of "gig" associated with musical performances, but
> > that's not the evidence I am seeing in the search. It seems to be
> > almost entirely eggcornish. While in the above quote it still might
> > have been a transcriber-induced eggcorn, reporters seem to repeat this
> > a lot.
> >
> > http://goo.gl/njHRD
> >> "He thought in the year 2000, 2001, to use the colloquial phrase, the
> gig
> >> was up," said Joseph Cotchett, who talked with Madoff for four hours
> >> Tuesday at the Butner Federal Correctional Institution near Research
> >> Triangle Park, North Carolina.
> >
> > This issue has been noticed before (the top hit in Google) in the CBC
> > Words: Woe & Wonder column.
> >
> > http://goo.gl/Mn0iA
> > GIGS, JIGS, AND JIBES. By Blair Shewchuk
> >
> > I am not going to replicate the entire post, but the circumstances
> > that brought it about were very similar to the line that sparked my
> > interest.
> >
>  > VS-)
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



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