"Silvan" wrote in message
...
PM6564 wrote:

What do you think the root of the word is? The word in question was
jig
(as used as an ethnic slur) It's root word is jigaboo. Kind of like
yank
and yankee.

Is it? Do you have any interesting sources to substantiate that, or is
that
just folk etymology?

I have a dictionary with a pretty good amount of etymological information,
and it says nothing about the jig/jigaboo relationship in reference to any
of the definitions for "jig (1)" such as the dance (from /gigue/), a joke,
blah blah, "a device for guiding a tool or for holding machine work in
place." It has the jig/jigaboo thing for "jig (2)"

(American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 4th ed. BTW)

--
Michael McIntyre ---- Silvan
Linux fanatic, and certified Geek; registered Linux user #243621
http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Rue/5407/


Here's the first one I came across:
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=jig

I tried to copy and paste it but it grabs everything including the HTML.
Could you explain your second part?

"the jig/jigaboo relationship in reference to any
of the definitions for "jig (1)" such as the dance (from /gigue/), a joke,
blah blah, "a device for guiding a tool or for holding machine work in
place." It has the jig/jigaboo thing for "jig (2)"

That confused the hell out of me.