giglet :- A lewd, wanton girl.

The etymology is murky. The 1st ed. OED doesn'tr really even hazard a guess. But other sources (the cautious AHD ventures 'perhaps') link giglet with Italian gigolo, French gigue 'violin; dance' (whence our jig) also linked with gigot 'leg of mutton'. Legs leads to dancing woman and prostitutes. Middle English also had gigletry 'lasciviousness'.

I guess I'll have to stop giggling and start chortling instead.

giglet - A shorter than usual length gig; the *usual being 3+hours with two 15 min breaks (one including a meal) and full bar *privelages. Whereas a "giglet" will be less than two hours, no breaks, no drinks or food and one has to enter through the back door of the kitchen at least an hour ahead of time. One good thing is that the leader/musicians will charge a preminum base and double premium in 1/2 hour segments for overtime...

I won't even start the *comparisons.

Dr Bill (wwh) sent me a piece of information about 'chortle' that was new to me:

I remembered it from Lewis Carroll, but didn't know he had coined it.

“‘O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!’ He chortled in his joy.”

Perhaps Lewis Carroll would chortle a bit himself to find that people are still using the word chortle, which he coined in Through the Looking-Glass, published in 1872.


Thanks Bill.