gighe

Apr. 17th, 2019 07:55 am
prettygoodword: text: words are sexy (Default)
[personal profile] prettygoodword
gighe (?) - n., plural of giga.


Not in the sense of a billion of something, even though that's the only entry for giga that some dictionaries have (even ones that list gighe as its plural), but an alternate spelling of gigue, a lively baroque dance whose name is a Frenchified form of jig, a lively Irish dance (which in turn came from French again, in the Old French form gige meaning both fiddle and dance, from Frankish, from a Proto-Germanic root meaning to move and to wish/desire, from PIE *gheiǵh-).

Which quite possibly makes this the most ridiculous obscure word yet in the Words With Friends dictionary. Sheesh.

---L.

Date: 2019-04-17 05:50 pm (UTC)
movingfinger: (Default)
From: [personal profile] movingfinger
Wow, if that hypothesized PG root is correct, that means the current "jiggy" slang is just about going full circle back to it!

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