More commonly confused words

Jig/ gig

The noun jig refers to a lively dance which often contains little hops, where one leg or both rise into the air. In manufacturing, a jig is a device holding something that is being worked on, and keeping the tool in place that is working on it. In the fishing industry, a jig is a kind of artificial bait moved up and down through the water. The word jig has a sense of movement, which is why the verb jigger, deriving from it, is used to mean to alter or adjust something. While in Thai English, sometimes the shorter word jig is used as a verb when the intended meaning is jigger, this is not standard English usage and would not be appropriate for formal writing in a research paper or publication.

The noun gig is perhaps best known today as an abbreviation for gigabyte, a multiple of the unit byte for digital information. Like most abbreviations, when gig is used to mean gigabyte, it is informal, so may not be suitable for use in scholarly publications or theses, depending on the context. There are several other meanings for the noun gig, including a popular slang term for a job, used by musicians and other temporary employees. Other uses of the noun gig are rarer, so unless you are writing a thesis or article about 18^th and 19^th century transportation in Europe, it is probably not necessary to remember that gig was also used to mean a two-wheeled carriage pulled by one horse. In trying to make sure to keep the spellings correct, word origins for the nouns jig and gig are no help, since no one is sure of their origins. It may be that jig as a lively dance derived from a fairly similar word used in the 1400s to mean fiddle or violin, the instrument usually accompanying the dance. Another very old meaning for the noun jig is not just as a hopping dance but also any kind of trick or smart move. This is the source of the idiomatic expression used in English from the 1700s onward: The jig is up. This statement, often spoken by policemen to wrongdoers, means that the tricks, whatever they were, are over now.  To remember how to spell jig, we might recall that when dancing a jig, people give a little hop or jump, and so we associate the words jig and jump with the letter j. By contrast, gig may be remembered if we tell ourselves that a gigabyte of information contains a gigantic amount of information, and so recall the letters gig beginning both words. Some usage examples:

• He said Mitsubishi plans to raise the production capacity of all three plants to 510,000 vehicles per year in 2013, making Thailand its largest producer. “We will need to invest another Bt1 billion to raise capacity at our third plant, and Bt3 billion-4 billion for maintenance of machinery as well as changing of jigs and molds for upcoming models,” he said.
• Auto-parts exports by local parts makers and auto manufacturers from Thailand amounted to more than Bt16 billion in January, growing by 6 per cent compared to the corresponding period last year. This is made up of Bt12.5 billion worth of components, Bt2.2 billion worth of engines, Bt1.2 billion worth of spare parts, Bt100 million worth of moulds and jigs, plus another Bt65 billion for other parts.
• Female traffic police officers do a little jig at Ratchaprasong intersection as part of a campaign encouraging motorists to drive carefully during the Songkran period.
• Kinzi (Thailand) Co., Ltd. provides a full integrated OEM service for stainless steel components. From tensile simulation, jig planing, cost design, quality control structuring, to production control, the company works tirelessly.
• Big-hitting batsman Chris Gayle performed a little jig at Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium on Wednesday after smashing his way to a 47-ball century that included 11 sixes in the Windies’ win over England.
• WITH LAST YEAR’S international concert lineup mostly packed with pop singers, J-pop and K-pop groups and EDM DJs, 2015 kicked off with a loud bang Tuesday night as heavy metal band Avenged Sevenfold’s returned to Bangkok for their third concert – this time at an even bigger venue. Eight years ago the American hard rock quintet had their debut show in the compact Studio 125 in Huay Kwang district, followed by the second gig in 2012 at the slightly larger but unfortunately worse sound-wise Thunderdome in Muang Thong Thani.
• This was the first solo show in the Land of Smiles for Lavigne, who first performed here in 2005 as part of the “Big Rock Day” gig alongside fellow Canadians Simple Plan and local stars Moderndog and Paradox.

Jibe/ gibe

As a verb, jibe is often used to mean to agree with, or to conform to what is known. The word’s origins are unknown, but they date back around 200 years at least. Used as a noun, jibe has a completely different meaning. It means an insult or verbal attack, an unpleasant comment meant to hurt someone’s feelings. Professional athletes often use public jibes to taunt one another. The spelling gibe is also accepted, although it is less common, for the noun describing something hurtful being said. If we are using the verb form, then the spelling should be jibe. It may be easiest to avoid errors by just recalling the single spelling jibe for both the noun and verb, and forgetting about the spelling gibe. In order to do so, we can tell ourselves a little story that it is no joke to jibe at someone, remembering that the letter j begins the words joke and jibe. Likewise, we may say that in a court case, every judge and jury want evidence to jibe with the final judgment. With so many examples of the letter j in the previous sentence, it is unlikely that we will make the error of spelling the word jibe with a letter g. Some usage examples:

• Gareth Bale sticks by England jibe ahead of Euro 2016 clash.
• Cheika lashes ‘shallow’ Hansen over bully jibe.
• “You’ve missed the whole concert. It’s about to end now,” Pongkul teased the late arrivals. For the rest of the show, the three mixed their verbal jibes with singing, drawing laughter every now and then. Their teases, pranks, and gags were effective in smoothing over a few gaffes too.
• The doctor’s diagnosis did not jibe with the medical evidence.
• Publicly available information on Simmons’s life after 1973, when he left the Navy, reveals a certain sort of aimlessness that doesn’t jibe with a career in the C.I.A.
• Last week, when Donald Trump’s lawyer was confronted on CNN with Trump’s defenses of Clinton during scandals, he responded that at the time Trump was simply trying to “protect a friend.” It’s all incredibly distasteful, yes, but it also doesn’t jibe.
• Impairing the European Union, Gibe by Gibe.

(All images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.)