Why Joe isn't going to Kenosha
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@Mik said in Why Joe isn't going to Kenosha:
Decisive!!!!
After last week's bluster about a national mask mandate, the man who was second in line for the presidency 3 ½ years ago realizes that it might not be constitutionally possible for the President to do that.
Ah...he's a "constitutionalist" (cough, 2nd amendment, cough):
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/biden-pressure-no-mask-mandate
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@jon-nyc said in Why Joe isn't going to Kenosha:
WHat's a 'jig'?
This was a widely used term where I grew up. It has the same meaning as Negro or African-American.
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"The jig is up" dates back centuries before it became used as a racial slur. A jig referred to a dance. The jig was up when the dance ended. Later the phrase "the jig is up" was used as a slang way of saying "you've been caught", "you've been found out" etc. So it was never used as a racial slur.
The racial slur "jig" is short for the word "jigaboo", which originally was not a racial slur, but an English translation of an African word for someone who is meek, servile.. a slave. It was blacks who used the word "jigaboo", not as a slur but to refer to those of their own who were meek. They shortened the word to "jig". Whites heard the word being used by the blacks, and began using it as a derogative way to refer to blacks in general, or in other words, as a racial slur.
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"The jig is up" dates back centuries before it became used as a racial slur. A jig referred to a dance. The jig was up when the dance ended. Later the phrase "the jig is up" was used as a slang way of saying "you've been caught", "you've been found out" etc. So it was never used as a racial slur.
The racial slur "jig" is short for the word "jigaboo", which originally was not a racial slur, but an English translation of an African word for someone who is meek, servile.. a slave. It was blacks who used the word "jigaboo", not as a slur but to refer to those of their own who were meek. They shortened the word to "jig". Whites heard the word being used by the blacks, and began using it as a derogative way to refer to blacks in general, or in other words, as a racial slur.
@Larry said in Why Joe isn't going to Kenosha:
A jig referred to a dance. The jig was up when the dance ended.
https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/261702/what-is-the-origin-of-the-idiom-jig-is-up
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The OED find the etymology of the word "jig" in its various meanings to be uncertain but traces the meaning of practical joke back to 1590. So when someone says "the jig is up," he means that he's no longer fooled by the pretense. The expression "the game is over" means the same thing: the trickster has been caught out in playing the trick.
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I believe the origin is in the dance, as in "dancing a jig."
"The jig (Irish: port) is a form of lively folk dance in compound meter, as well as the accompanying dance tune. It developed in 16th-century England, and was quickly adopted on the Continent where it eventually became the final movement of the mature Baroque dance suite (the French gigue; Italian and Spanish giga)" -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jig
Thus it could be that the best meaning of "the jig is up" is "the dance is over" --which seems to fit the OED citation: 1777 Maryland Jrnl. 17 June Mr. John Miller came in and said, ‘The jig is over with us.’
Other speculations relating "the jig" to a trick or a game, would have a parallel in the word "caper," which is both a slang term for a trick, game, or crime, and a dance or element of a dance.
Last but not least, the alternative pronunciation "gig" with a hard "g" has more than slight resemblance the French dance "gigue" and the Spanish and Italian "giga." In French, Spanish, and Italian the "g" may well be soft, in which case use of the hard "g" would be incorrect.
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/the_jig_is_up
Jig is an old term for a lively dance, and in the Elizabethan era the word also became slang for a practical joke or a trick. This idiom derives from this obsolete slang word. [1] (Robert Hendrickson (1997) Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins, New York: Facts on File).
https://knowyourphrase.com/jig-is-up
Today, one of the definitions for the word “jig” is to dance. Perhaps you’ve heard someone say the phrase “gettin’ jiggy with it.” But this definition is not relevant to the origin of the phrase “the jig is up.” So let’s focus on the time when the word “jig” was slang for a trick.
Yes, according to the Facts on File Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins, by Robert Hendrickson, it states that this expression was used during Elizabethan times (mid-to-late 16th century). During these times, the word “jig” became slang for a practical joke or trick. Thus, if “the jig was up,” it meant your trick was found out, or exposed.
It’s believed that this era is where the modern phrase derives its meaning.
So there.
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