Enter The Dragon

[Laurence Horn]

At 11:58 AM -0400 5/4/11, Eric Nielsen wrote:
>On Tue, May 3, 2011 at 9:57 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
>
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>>  Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>  Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
>>  Subject:      Enter The Dragon
>>
>>
>>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>>  is on the local tube. A cop says to the token black,
>>
>>  "Where you goin' _jig_?"
>>
>>  I've never noticed that before, despite my having seen the movie times
>>  a beaucoup (cooler than "beaucop times" in StL, back in the day). A
>>  clip of the rare-in-the-wild, IME, "jigaboo," no doubt.
>>
>>  --
>>  -Wilson
>>
>Here's a group of talented young people--with a healthy sense of humor
>(thumb on nose, I suppose). Check out the title of their album:
>
>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbcqGjeNz7w
>
>
I love their music, but is there any reason to believe the "jig" here
is anything other than the musical term for a lively kind of dance
(the OED's JIG 1, with cites to the 16th c., of unknown origin),
rather than JIG 2, 'a black person (depreciative and offensive)',
which then blends with "bugaboo" to form "jigaboo"?  One of the
musicians mentions the name of the album toward the end of the clip
without clarifying the intended reference, but the JIG 2 meaning
seems unlikely in this context.

LH

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