jig n.4
1. a derog. term for a black person.
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | Rain II 166: What’s that the old jig does? | |
| (con. 1910s) Young Lonigan in Studs Lonigan (1936) 53: Janitor’s jobs were for jiggs, and Hunkies, and Polacks. | |
| ‘Thundermug’ in Texas Stories (1995) 67: I wouldn’t let a jig smell the hole where I crapped in. | |
| Lucifer with a Book 121: Someday me and my gang are gonna form a KKK and lynch that jig. | |
| Teen-Age Gangs 56: It’s the jigs, them Black Velvets and Brigadiers. | |
| Getting Straight 155: Just like you cheer for this big jig shovin’ a ball through a hoop! | |
| Never Die Alone 27: We write about the parties the Jews went to with the jigs. | |
| Lang. of Ethnic Conflict 49: Other Cultural Allusions: jigg [1923. Shortened from jigaboo. Also jiga, jigger, nig-a-jig, zig]. | |
| ‘The Open Book’ in Whorehouse Bells Were Ringing (1995) 113: A counterfeit chump, the result of a hump, / twixt a Spaniard, a Yaqui and a Jig. | |
| A Drink Before the War 8: Mulkern was the kind of guy who said ‘jigs’ when he wasn’t sure enough of the company to say ‘niggers’. | |
| (con. 1964–8) Cold Six Thousand 69: Mr. Hughes hates jigs. He thinks they should all be doped up, like he is. | |
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Turning Angel 222: I’ve even seen a couple of black boys pick her up. One jig [...] showed up at my front door. | |
| Gutshot Straight [ebook] Your average jig had nothing on a Mexican girl when it came to sheer laziness. | |
| Razorblade Tears 62: ‘Them jigs been down yet’. |
2. as used by a black person, thus not derog.; also as a term of address.
| Nigger Heaven 62: You can understand those cotton-picking jigs in the South; they’ve had to put up with centuries of deceit and treachery on the part of the ofays. | |
| Walls Of Jericho 41: One night a bunch of bad jigs – like those over on Fifth Avenue now – mistook me for a fay, and I had a devil of a time proving I was a Negro, too! | |
| ‘Story in Harlem Sl.’ in Novels and Stories (1995) 1003: ‘Who boogerbooing?’ Jelly snorted. ‘Jig, I don’t have to.’. |
In compounds
(US) a white person who pursues the company of blacks.
| Nigger Heaven 7: He was known to be a particular favourite with jig-chasers from below the line. | |
| ‘Vocab. of the Amer. Negro’ in AS VII:1 29: jig-chasers. V. n. A white who seeks the company of Negroes. | |
| Criminal Sl. (rev. edn). | |
 | Libido Dominandi 230: Picasso, it turns out, was a Spanish jig-chaser [...[ And McKay was a jig who wasn’t averse to being chased - and caught, for that matter. |
(US) a razor or knife slash.
| ‘Chatter of Guns’ in Sat. Eve. Post 13 Apr.; list extracted in AS VI:2 (1930) 133: jig cut, n. A deep cut. | |
| et al. DAUL 110/2: Jig-cut. (Near South, close to Atlantic Coast) A deep knife or razor wound. | |
| Maledicta III:2 168: jig cut n Gash; from the alleged commonness of knife fighting among the Negroes. |
(US) a broken down vehicle allegedly typical of those owned by ghetto residents.
| Suicide Hill 42: The cars either abandoned jig rigs or welfare wagons in mint condition. |
(US Und.) a blacksmith’s.
| Keys to Crookdom 78: The crook before going up against a job ‘weeds’ the necessary tools from a ‘jig shop’. |
(US carnival) a show using only black performers, usu. girls.
| Madball (2019) 8: The music Mack Irby heard wasn’t [...] the three-piece combo of the jig show. |
(US) a black community within an urban area.
| ‘the eye’ in Prince of Darkness 177: He is [...] just a nigger that’s deef [sic] and lives over in jigtown somewhere and plays the piano for dances. | |
| Angle of Attack 19: Maybe Win gets his clothes up in Harlem [...] I hear all the latest New York styles are set up in jig town. | |
| Spectrum 3-4 44: Dave Katz who runs a liquor store in jig-town. | |
| Congress bi-weekly 31 117/2: New Orleans is still two cities — ‘jig town’ and New Orleans. White cab drivers do not pick up Negroes and Negro drivers do not pick up whites. | |
| Listening to America 280: Here you are, Mister. This is jig town. | |
| Maledicta IX 52: jig Town n [C] Black community within an urban area. |
(US) a derog. term for a black person, unless used by blacks.
| in Wash. Post 9 Feb. 2: There is a big dinge club in the block and there happened to be a bunch of jig walks posing around the door. | |
| Walls Of Jericho 293: Bright boogy, Patmore, figuring it all out like that – bright jig-walker – knew how to do things. | |
| Born to Be (1975) 236: Inks, Jigwalk, Spade [...] Nicknames for Ethiopians. | |
| G.S. Schuyler Black No More (1971) 193: It sure is good to be able to admit that you’re a jigwalk once more. |
(US) alcohol, spirits.
| Memphis Cly Appeal 31 Dec. 3/4: The ‘boys’ at Louisville have coined the term ‘jig-water’ to what is familiarly known here as ‘bug-juice,’ and in Cincinnati as ‘eye-water’. | |
| Nat. Republican (DC) 29 July 4/2: The liquor distilled from corn, wheat and other grains [...] hog juice or jig water, is the main and only cause of this demented conduct. | |
| Oakum Pickings 12: He thought he had gravitated to his level in the ‘hash and jig water business,’ as he facetiously termed it. | |
| Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 18 Mar. 10/4: [He] returned to his home with just enough jig water and bug juice In him to make him funny. | |
| Wolfville 70: I s’pose this yere bein’ married is a heap habit, same as tobacco an’ jig-juice. | |
| ‘College Words and Phrases’ in DN II:iii 142: jig-water, n. A drink made from a mixture of alcohol, sugar, water and wintergreen. | |
| Sorrows of a Show Girl Ch. vi: After the usual red tape the captain sold us about two quarts of jig-juice – the kind that makes a jack-rabbit spit in a bulldog’s eye. | |
| Maledicta III:2 168: jig water n Liquor; from the alleged Negro fondness for alcohol. |