fizgig

Etymology 1

From Middle English gig (“a frivolous woman”); the first element of the word may be from fise (“an instance of flatulence”), from fist (“an act of breaking wind”).

noun

1. (archaic) A flirtatious, coquettish girl, inclined to gad or gallivant about; a gig, a giglot, a jillflirt.
   You thinke (perhaps) to win great fame / by uncouth sutes and fashions wilde: / All such as know you thinke the same, / but in ech kind you are beguilde; / For when you looke for praises sound; / Then are you for light fisgiggs crownde. 1596, Stephen Gosson, Pleasant Quippes for Vpstart Nevvfangled Gentlevvomen, London: Imprinted at London by Richard Iohnes, →OCLC; reprinted as [John Payne Collier, editor], Pleasant Quippes for Upstart Newfangled Women. By Stephen Gosson. A Treatise on the Pride and Abuse of Women. By Charles Bansley. The First from a Copy with the Author’s Autograph; the Last from a Unique Impression by Thomas Reynalde, London: Reprinted by T. Richards, for the executors of the late C. Richards, 100, St. Martin's Lane, 1841, →OCLC, page 13
   I don't see why Gertrude is not young enough and strong enough to take care of her child herself, without having a fine madman of a nurse to help her. If she cannot it is time she is learned;—anyway, I will keep no such fizgigs about here. 1864, Geraldine E[ndsor] Jewsbury, chapter XXX, in The Sorrows of Gentility, 2nd edition, London: Chapman and Hall, 193, Piccadilly, →OCLC, page 180
2. (archaic) Something frivolous or trivial; a gewgaw, a trinket.
   "[…] Lillie did the best she could, poor girl! but I could see all the time she was worrying about her new fizgigs and folderols in the house.[…]" / "[…] Young mistresses, you see, have nerves all over their house at first. They tremble at every dent in their furniture, and wink when you come near it, as if you were going to hit it a blow; but that wears off in time, and they learn to take it easy." 1871, Harriet Beecher Stowe, “John’s Birthday”, in Pink and White Tyranny. A Society Novel, Boston, Mass.: Roberts Brothers, →OCLC, page 147
   Mr. Leslie Stephen's style is exactly the opposite to Canon [Charles] Kingsley's. We have no fizgigs of fine writing for fine writing's sake, or for the sake of anything else. God is not adjured nor complimented in every other page. Christianity and muscles find their proper places. It is a perfect relief after the flabby, effeminate rhetoric with which we are now deluged, to read Mr. Leslie Stephen's terse and masculine style. 1 July 1874, “Belles Lettres”, in The Westminster and Foreign Quarterly Review, volume CII, number CCI (New Series, volume XLVI, number I), London: Trübner & Co, 57 & 59, Ludgate Hill, →OCLC, pages 291–292
   Tawdry has been applied to some of the pianoforte "fizgigs" that [Franz] Liszt attached to pieces he adapted from themes by others; that may or may not be a justifiable designation, but we look in vain for any such treatment in the Dead March. 28 May 1910, “Wanted—a Funeral March”, in Musical News, volume XXXVIII, London: [s.n.], →OCLC, page 566

verb

1. (archaic, intransitive) To roam around in a frivolous manner; to gad about, to gallivant.
   Why should I go gadding and fizgigging after firking flantado amphibologies? 1594, Tho[mas] Nashe, The Vnfortunate Traueller. Or, The Life of Iacke Wilton, London: Printed by T[homas] Scarlet for C[uthbert] Burby, & are to be sold at his shop adioyning to the Exchange, →OCLC; republished in Stanley Wells, editor, Thomas Nashe: Selected Works (Routledge Revivals), Abingdon, Oxon.; New York, N.Y.: Routledge, 2015, page 221
   […] I likes you because yo're none of the fiz-gigging misses, with their roles and pomatums, and tippets, and trumpery; you're a sober minded young woman, one belike as wull keep close house, and mind business: […] 1782, Robert Bage, Mount Henneth: A Novel, London: Printed for T. Lowndes, →OCLC; republished in The Novels of Swift, Bage, and Cumberland; … (Ballantyne's Novelist's Library; IX), London: Published by Hurst, Robinson, and Co. 90, Cheapside, and 8, Pall Mall; printed by James Ballantyne and Company, at the Border Press, Edinburgh, 1824, →OCLC, pages 147–148
   The old man's backside fizgigged with laughter. "See ya, kid!" he called as Dave pedaled away. 2010 June, Wendelin Van Draanen, “Vinnie Gets Grilled”, in The Power Potion (The Gecko & Sticky), New York, N.Y.: Alfred A. Knopf, page 46

Etymology 2

fizz + gig (“a whirling thing”)

noun

1. (archaic) A small squib-like firework that explodes with a fizzing or hissing noise.
   What the Chevalier [Mortram] is about to do no one is supposed to know but himself. In the impenetrable breast of the artist lies the determination […] whether a Devil-among-the-Tailors shall end his freaks with a grand explosion of flower-pots and fizzgigs; […] or a fiery dragon to dart and wriggle and spit fire over the heads of the spectators. 10 September 1853, “A Brilliant Display of Fireworks”, in Charles Dickens, editor, Household Words. A Weekly Journal, volume VIII, number 181, London: Published at the Office, no. 16, Wellington Street North, Strand; printed by Bradbury & Evans, Whitefriars, London, →OCLC, page 45, column 2
   Very different were our fizgigs at Brambles'. Neither powder nor pepper (you know) was adulterated in those days, and if you made a fizgig, why it blossomed and starred like a golden thistle, flashed into a myriad sparklets like a tiny fountain for Queen Mab and her troupe to dance around. 1864, Frank Fowler, “‘Guy Faux, Guy.’”, in Last Gleanings, London: Sampson Low, Son, and Marston, 14 Ludgate Hill, →OCLC, page 44
   And one day fortune played into his hand by sending a customer to the shop for two ounces of gunpowder, when Paul was standing by. / "Do you keep gunpowder, then?" said Paul, with kindling eyes, as the man left the shop. / "Yes," answered his brother innocently, "but we only sell it to grown-up people. Boys wouldn't know what to do with it." / "Wouldn't they, though? Why, you can make fizgigs of it that blaze like Vesuvius, the burning mountain." 1876, Whyte Thorne [pseudonym; Richard Whiteing], “Brother Peter”, in The Democracy. A Novel […] In Three Volumes, volume I, London: Chatto & Windus, Piccadilly, →OCLC, pages 71–72
   Half a dozen boys in linen blazers, their hair in uniform flattops, were shooting off fizgigs in his alley and paid him no mind as he pretended to use his key to unlock the alley-oop door. 2008, Salvatore Scibona, in The End, St. Paul, Minn.: Graywolf Press; republished London: Vintage Books, 2011, page 35

Etymology 3

Possibly from Spanish fisga (“harpoon”).

noun

1. (fishing) A spear with a barb on the end of it, used for catching fish, frogs, or other small animals; a type of harpoon.
   At day break we were cloſe by the Peninſule Mozambique (part of Quiloa) inhabited by Negroes; abundant in Gold, Silver, and Ambergreece; […] [A]n Armado of Dolphins aſſaulted us; and ſuch we ſaulted as we could intice to taſte our hooks or fiſſgiggs: […] 1638, Tho[mas] Herbert Sir Thomas Herbert, 1st Baronet], Some Yeares Travels into Divers Parts of Asia and Afrique. […], rev. and enl. (2nd) edition, London: Printed by R[ichard] Bi[sho]p for Iacob Blome and Richard Bishop, →OCLC, book I, page 24
   FIZGIG, ſ[ubſtantive] [a ſort of dart or harpoon with which ſeamen ſtrike fiſh.] Sorte de harpon.] [1785, A[bel] Boyer, Lewis [i.e., Louis] Chambaud, J[ean-]B[aptiste] Robinet, “FIZGIG”, in A. Boyer’s New Dictionary English and French: and French and English. Containing the Signification of Words, with Their Different Uses; the Terms of Arts, Sciences and Trades; the Constructions, Forms of Speech, Idioms, and Proverbs Used in Both Languages: the Whole Extracted from the Best Writers; Corrected, Improved and Enlarged, volume II (Containing the English before the French), Paris: C[harles-Joseph] Panckoucke; Amsterdam: D. J. Changuion and B. Vlam; Utrecht: B. Wild, →OCLC, page 206, column 3
   [T]he inhabitants of this bay appeared to possess, in general, a very pointed difference from, if not a superiority over, those of New South Wales, particularly in their net-works. There was no doubt but they were provided with nets for catching very large fish, or animals; […] Mr. [Matthew] Flinders was of opinion, that this mode of procuring their food would cause a characteristic difference between the manners, and perhaps the dispositions of these people, and of those who mostly depend upon the spear or fizgig for a supply. 1811, [G. Paterson], chapter XXXI, in The History of New South Wales, from Its First Discovery to the Present Time; Comprising an Accurate and Interesting Description of that Vast and Remarkable Country; […], Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Printed and published by Mackenzie and Dent, St. Nicholas' Church-yard, →OCLC, page 357
   [T]wo of these red Indians in a boat, and they just paddle soft, paddle soft, as still as still, and they come up to the turtles as they lie asleep in the sea, and then. Whang. They dart their fizgigs. They never miss. 1908, John Masefield, Captain Margaret: A Romance, London: G. Richards, →OCLC, page 104

Etymology 4

Origin unknown.

noun

1. (Australia, slang, dated) A police informer, a stool pigeon, someone employed by police to entrap someone else or provoke them to commit a crime.
   In order to make the clause perfect the Minister might add— / All "spotters," spies, fizgigs, and informers will be properly rewarded, and duly promoted, and guaranteed against publicity. 1922, Parliament of Australia, Parliamentary Debates, volume 101, [s.l.]: Printed and published for the Government of the Commonwealth of Australia by J. Kemp, →OCLC, page 3262
   "Fizgigs?" Wood asks. / "Pimps. A fizgig is an agent provocateur – he gets you to do something you shouldn't do and that will hang you in court. A pimp gets you to do something innocuous that will still hang you.[…]" 2007 January, Pip Wilson, Faces in the Street: Louisa and Henry Lawson and the Castlereagh Street Push, 3rd edition, Coffs Harbour, N.S.W.: Pip Wilson, page 191
   A normal feller going about his business will give ya the once over without a squirm, but not this joker. Either he was a fizgig, or he was there to tip off someone about Jack's movements – Soupy, presumably. 2012, G. S. Manson, chapter 10, in Coorparoo Blues & the Irish Fandango, Portland, Or.: Verse Chorus Press, page 71

verb

1. (Australia, slang, dated) To act as a police informer or agent provocateur.
   The employment of "fiz-gigs" – men engaged by detectives to tempt discharged prisoners to commit specified […] The report of Mr. Francis Longmore and his colleagues may indeed have tended to diminish "fiz-gigging" […] 1907, “Crime and the Criminal. The Defective Detective Forces of Australia.”, in The Lone Hand, volume I, Sydney, N.S.W.: William McLeod, →OCLC, page 523
   Easy, Frank. I don't want any terror. Just a line on Catchpole—who he's fizzgigging for at the moment. What might be going on. 1985, Peter Corris, chapter 5, in Make Me Rich, Sydney, N.S.W., London: Unwin Paperbacks

Etymology 5

(Jacobaea vulgaris, syn. Senecio jacobaea in Reilingen, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. A 19th-century work records that this plant was known as “fizz-gigs” in the Merse (that is, Berwickshire) in Scotland, UK.]] Origin unknown.

noun

1. (Scotland, rare) common ragwort (Jacobaea vulgaris, syn. Senecio jacobaea).
   S[enecio] jacobæa. Ragwort: Yellow-weed: Yellow elshinders, and in the Merse [Berwickshire], Fizz-gigs.—A common weed in old pastures and by road-sides. 1853, George Johnston, “A Flora of the Eastern Borders”, in The Botany of the Eastern Borders, with the Popular Names and Uses of the Plants, and of the Customs and Beliefs which have been Associated with Them (Terra Lindisfarnensis. The Natural History of the Eastern Borders; I), London: John Van Voorst, Paternoster Row, →OCLC, page 111, paragraph 318