Other forms: jigs
A jig is a device that holds work in exactly the right place. Make a jig, a drilling jig, clamp it in the jig.
It is what turns a skilled operation into a repeatable one — the jig holds the work and guides the tool, so the hundredth piece matches the first. A jig is also a lively dance, and the jig is up means the game is over. The origin of the word is unknown.
1nounjigA device that holds work in exactly the right place.
“The carpenter built a jig so that every hole would be drilled in exactly the same place.”
jig is a tool.
The origin is unknown. A link with an Old French word for a fiddle has been proposed and the sense development is obscure.
Old French
gigue — a fiddle
Middle English
gyge — fiddle
English, today
jig
unknown. Derivation from Middle English gyge (“fiddle”), from Old French gigue (“a fiddle”) has been proposed, but the connection and sense development are obscure. The sense “a type of dance” of modern gigue is borrowed from English.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA