jig

Etymology 1

Unknown. Derivation from Middle English gyge (“fiddle”), from Old French gigue (“a fiddle”) has been proposed, but the connection and sense development are obscure. The sense “a type of dance” of modern French gigue is borrowed from English.

noun

1. (music) A light, brisk musical movement; a gigue.
2. (traditional Irish music and dance) A lively dance in 6/8 (double jig), 9/8 (slip jig) or 12/8 (single jig) time; a tune suitable for such a dance. By extension, a lively traditional tune in any of these time signatures. Unqualified, the term is usually taken to refer to a double (6/8) jig.
   They danced a jig.
   Soon Marshall is doing an elaborate foot-to-foot jig, and then they're all bounding around. Shoulder dips. Yee-ha faces. It's an impromptu hoedown. 2012 November 15, Tom Lamont, “How Mumford & Sons became the biggest band in the world”, in The Daily Telegraph
3. (traditional English Morris dance) A dance performed by one or sometimes two individual dancers, as opposed to a dance performed by a set or team.
4. (fishing) A type of lure consisting of a hook molded into a weight, usually with a bright or colorful body.
5. A device in manufacturing, woodworking, or other creative endeavors for controlling the location, path of movement, or both of either a workpiece or the tool that is operating upon it. Subsets of this general class include machining jigs, woodworking jigs, welders' jigs, jewelers' jigs, and many others.
   Cutting circles out of pinewood is best done with a compass-style jig.
   The bodywork employs, where possible, the same constructional methods as for the standard B.R. coaching stock, in order to utilise existing jigs and press tools. 1959 March, “The 2,500 h.p. electric locomotives for the Kent Coast electrification”, in Trains Illustrated, page 125
6. (mining) An apparatus or machine for jigging ore.
7. (obsolete) A light, humorous piece of writing, especially in rhyme; a farce in verse; a ballad.
   A jig shall be clapped at, and every rhyme / Praised and applauded by a clamorous chime. 1647, John Fletcher, Beaumont and Fletcher, The Fair Maid of the Inn
8. (obsolete) A trick; a prank.
   This Innovation? Is't not a fine Jigg? / A precious cunning in the late Protector / To shuffle a new Prince into the State. 1635, James Shirley, The Coronation

verb

1. To move briskly, especially as a dance.
   The guests were jigging around on the dance floor.
2. To move with a skip or rhythm; to move with vibrations or jerks.
   […]and the fin would jig off slowly, as if it were looking for nothing at all. 1893, Rudyard Kipling, The White Seal
3. (fishing) To fish with a jig.
4. To sing to the tune of a jig.
5. To trick or cheat; to cajole; to delude.
6. (mining) To sort or separate, as ore in a jigger or sieve.
7. To cut or form, as a piece of metal, in a jigging machine.
8. To skip school or be truant (Australia, Canadian Maritimes)

Etymology 2

Probably a clipping of jigaboo, of uncertain origin, perhaps an African/Bantu word. Alternatively, jigaboo may be derived from jig (“dance”).

noun

1. (US, offensive, slang, dated, ethnic slur) A black person.
   “…Lucky for me he wasn’t a jig, otherwise I couldn’t have done it.” “Jig?” “Nigger. Afro American.” His voice was heavy with sarcasm. 2011, Andrew Lithgow, Retribution, page 228