Comments on: The Light From Gig on Quiz http://blog.oup.com/2007/10/gig/ Introducing brilliant authors to the blogosphere. Sat, 21 Nov 2009 22:43:07 -0600 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: Jonathan Lighter http://blog.oup.com/2007/10/gig/comment-page-1/#comment-85241 Jonathan Lighter Sun, 25 Nov 2007 17:17:49 +0000 http://blog.oup.com/2007/10/gig/#comment-85241 My experience in America is that "gig" simply means "job for wages," the notion of being "temporary" only sometimes being implied. Even the jazz-related "live performance of popular music" may be an overrefinement, since the "job" sense apparently arose among jazz musicians (or perhaps vaudevillians) themselves. Lexicographers may have thought it necessary to include the "temporary" nuance owing to common collocations such as, "It's just a gig (till I [etc.])." Musical "gigs" are by nature temporary, but "job" itself has long been used this way. The two words have long - perhaps always - been synonyms. HDAS offers numerous exx. My experience in America is that “gig” simply means “job for wages,” the notion of being “temporary” only sometimes being implied. Even the jazz-related “live performance of popular music” may be an overrefinement, since the “job” sense apparently arose among jazz musicians (or perhaps vaudevillians) themselves.

Lexicographers may have thought it necessary to include the “temporary” nuance owing to common collocations such as, “It’s just a gig (till I [etc.]).” Musical “gigs” are by nature temporary, but “job” itself has long been used this way. The two words have long – perhaps always – been synonyms. HDAS offers numerous exx.

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