gig
a musical performance
TRANSLATION
gig = (modern ugs.) ein Job, vor allem ein musikalischer Auftritt --- GOOGLE INDEX gig: approximately 44,000,000 hits
STATISTICS
IN THE PRESS
The first Montrose Music Festival gets under way, featuring about 40 different acts playing 60 GIGS.
(BBC News)
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"If you have to have a job in this world, a high-priced movie star is a pretty good GIG."
- Hollywood actor Tom Hanks
(BBC News)
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"If you have to have a job in this world, a high-priced movie star is a pretty good GIG."
- Hollywood actor Tom Hanks
Did you
know?
gig
noun
- a job, especially a booking for musicians (I have a gig across town this weekend.)
verb
- to work as a musician (I'm gigging at a club in the east end tomorrow.)
(The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition)
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WORD ORIGIN
In addition to the modern slang sense of a job, particularly a booking for a musician or a band, gig has several other interesting meanings:
- a lightweight, two-wheeled carriage pulled by a single horse. This sense is meanwhile outdated.
- a long light ship's boat, usually reserved for use by the ship's captain, or a fast light rowboat
- an arrangement of hooks that is dragged through a school of fish to hook them in their bodies
- a pronged spear for fishing or catching frogs
- an object that whirls, such as a spinning top or a carousel
- in computer jargon, one gigabyte
It's not clear how the definition of a musical performance evolved. Some sources believe it may stem from the days in New Orleans when jazz musicians, most of whom where black, rode around in one-horse carriages called "gigs" and performed so as not to be seen standing around on the street.
Gig, in the sense of a musical performance, is recorded as far back as 1905. It was during the early days of pop music in the 1960s that it really entered the popular lexicon. Today, it can be applied to nearly any situation where someone is asked or hired to do something on a one-time basis, particularly if it involves performing.
According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, gig has its roots in the Middle English "ghyg," which referred to a spinning top, also called a whirligig (circa 1440). Whirl is synonymous with "to spin or turn." Whirlybird, another word for helicopter, is from 1951.
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SMUGGLE OWAD INTO TODAY'S CONVERSATION:
"In my free time I play in a band, would you like to come to a gig this evening?"
noun
- a job, especially a booking for musicians (I have a gig across town this weekend.)
verb
- to work as a musician (I'm gigging at a club in the east end tomorrow.)
(The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition)
---
WORD ORIGIN
In addition to the modern slang sense of a job, particularly a booking for a musician or a band, gig has several other interesting meanings:
- a lightweight, two-wheeled carriage pulled by a single horse. This sense is meanwhile outdated.
- a long light ship's boat, usually reserved for use by the ship's captain, or a fast light rowboat
- an arrangement of hooks that is dragged through a school of fish to hook them in their bodies
- a pronged spear for fishing or catching frogs
- an object that whirls, such as a spinning top or a carousel
- in computer jargon, one gigabyte
It's not clear how the definition of a musical performance evolved. Some sources believe it may stem from the days in New Orleans when jazz musicians, most of whom where black, rode around in one-horse carriages called "gigs" and performed so as not to be seen standing around on the street.
Gig, in the sense of a musical performance, is recorded as far back as 1905. It was during the early days of pop music in the 1960s that it really entered the popular lexicon. Today, it can be applied to nearly any situation where someone is asked or hired to do something on a one-time basis, particularly if it involves performing.
According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, gig has its roots in the Middle English "ghyg," which referred to a spinning top, also called a whirligig (circa 1440). Whirl is synonymous with "to spin or turn." Whirlybird, another word for helicopter, is from 1951.
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SMUGGLE OWAD INTO TODAY'S CONVERSATION:
"In my free time I play in a band, would you like to come to a gig this evening?"
