gigot

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English[edit]

WOTD – 23 January 2019

Etymology[edit]

A gigot of lamb (sense 1) being cooked in France
A bodice from 1830–1840 with gigot sleeves[n 1]

Borrowed from French gigot (“leg (of lamb)”), from gigue (“(colloquial) a long leg; haunch of some animals, especially venison”) + -ot (“diminutive suffix”). Gigue is derived from giguer (“to dance; to jump”), further etymology unknown.[1]

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

gigot (plural gigots)

  1. (cooking) A leg of lamb or mutton.
    • 1581, Homer, “The Seconde Booke”, in A[rthur] H[all], transl., Ten Books of Homers Iliades, Translated out of French, London: Imprinted by [Henry Bynneman? for] Ralphe Nevvberie, →OCLC, page 31:
      Then is the hoſtie ſlaine and flayde, and part on gridorne put, / The liuer and lights they comely ſéeth and euery little gut. / The gigots and the other fleſh in péeces they did ſpit, / Which roſt, tipling the pleaſaunt wine they downe to table ſit.
    • c. 1619–1622, John Fletcher, Philip Massinger, “The Double Marriage. A Tragedy.”, in Fifty Comedies and Tragedies. […], [part 2], London: […] J[ohn] Macock [and H. Hills], for John Martyn, Henry Herringman, and Richard Marriot, published 1679, →OCLC, Act III, scene i, page 104, column 2:
      Guard, Treaſon, treaſon, treaſon. / Boatſ[wain]. Cut the ſlaevs to giggets.
    • 1623, G[ervase] M[arkham], “Of the Outward and Actiue Knowledge of the Hous-wife; and of Her Skill in Cookerie; as Sallets of All Sorts, with Flesh, Fish, Sauces, Pastrie, Banqueting-stuffe, and Ordering of Great Feasts: Also Distillations, Perfumes, Conceited Secrets, and Preseruing Wine of All Sorts”, in Covntrey Contentments, or The English Husvvife. […], London: Printed by I. B. for R. Iackson, […], →OCLC, page 120:
      Next them all ſorts of Roſt-meates, of which the greateſt first, as Chine of Beeffe or Surloine, the Gigget or Legges of Mutton, Gooſſe, Swan, Veale, Pig, Capon, and ſuch like.
    • 1730, Abu’l Ghâzi Bahâder [i.e., Abu al-Ghazi Bahadur], “Of Hadsim Chan, and the Other Descendants of Akattai Chan”, in A General History of the Turks, Moguls, and Tatars, Vulgarly Called Tartars. Together with a Description of the Countries They Inhabit. In Two Volumes. […], volume I, London: Printed for J. and J. Knapton [et al.], →OCLC, page 287:
      [A] Countryman came to intreat the Honour of him to go take a Repaſt at his House; Timur Sultan accepting of the Invitation, the Peaſant in order to treat him the better killed a fat Sheep, and at his Departure made him a Present of a good Gigot which was left.
    • 1732, Charles Carter, “For Legs of Mutton Ham Fashion”, in The Compleat City and Country Cook: Or, Accomplish’d Housewife. […], London: Printed for A. Bettesworth and C. Hitch; and C. Davis […] T. Green […]; and S. Austen […], →OCLC, page 32:
      You muſt have Hind-Quarters very large, and cut Jigget Faſhion, that is a Piece of Loin with it; […]
    • 1759, William Verral, “Jigot de mouton aux onions Espaniols. Jiggot of Mutton with Spanish Onions.”, in A Complete System of Cookery. […], London: Printed for the author, and sold by him; as also by Edward Verral bookseller, […]; and by John Rivington […], page 47:
      A jiggot of mutton is the leg with part of the loin; provide ſuch a one as has been killed two or three days at leaſt, thump it well, and bind it with packthread; […]
    • 1821, [Elizabeth] Benger, Memoirs of the Life of Anne Boleyn, Queen of Henry VIII. [...] In Two Volumes, 2nd edition, volume I, London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […], →OCLC, footnote, page 220:
      Among the dainties which he [Henry VIII of England] relished, were giggots of mutton or venison, stopped with cloves; […]
    • 1844, Henry Stephens, “Of Driving and Slaughtering Sheep”, in The Book of the Farm, […], volume II, Edinburgh, London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, paragraph 1396, page 98:
      The jigot […] is the handsomest and most valuable part of the carcass, and on that account fetches the highest price. It is either a roasting or a boiling piece. Of Black-faced mutton it makes a fine roast, and the piece of fat in it called the Pope's eye, is considered a delicate morceau by epicures. A jigot of Leicester, Cheviot, or Southdown mutton makes a beautiful "boiled leg of mutton," which is prized the more the fatter it is, as this part of the carcass is never overloaded with fat.
    • 1860, J[ohn] Cordy Jeaffreson, “The Doctor as a Bon-vivant”, in A Book about Doctors. [...] In Two Volumes, volume I, London: Hurst and Blackett, publishers, successors to Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 187:
      On the table the only viands were barons of beef, jiggets of mutton, legs of pork, and such other ponderous masses of butcher's stuff, which no one can look at without discomfort, when the first edge has been taken off the appetite.
    • 1944 August, D. E. Walker, C. P. McMeekan, “Canterbury Lamb”, in D. Cairns, editor, The New Zealand Journal of Science and Technology, volume 26, section A (Agricultural Section), number 2, Wellington: [Council of Scientific and Industrial Research.] E. V. Paul, government printer, →ISSN, →OCLC, part II (Comparative Measurements of Canterbury Lamb), page 62:
      Wide gigots [of lambs] are desirable from the point of view of conformation so that this measurement has both a qualitative and quantitative significance. The heavy-weight lambs are wider in the gigots than the light-weights of the same breed group.
    • 1965 February, Ray Stevens George, Effects of Varying Percentages of Fat in Lamb Carcasses on Slaughter, Storage, Cutting, and Cooking Losses (unpublished M.S. dissertation), Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University, →OCLC, page 13:
      In search of a single measurement to predict the loin eye area, the width of the gigots and the circumference of the thigh were used along with the circumference of the forearms, the carcass length, the depth at heart, the width at the shoulder, the width at the hips, and the width of the pin bones.
  2. (fashion) Short for gigot sleeve (“a type of sleeve shaped like a leg of mutton”).
    Synonym: leg-of-mutton sleeve
    • 1839, Frances Trollope, “The Ball”, in The Widow Barnaby. [...] In Three Volumes, volume II, London: Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, page 29:
      Of these circumambulatory ells of crape, the young artificer contrived to fabricate a dress that was anything but unbecoming. The enormous crape gigots (for those were the days of gigots), which made part of her black treasure, hung from her delicate fair arms like transparent clouds upon the silvery brightness of the moon ....
    • [1873, Amelia Perrier, “Judas Iscariot, the Feast of Purim, and the Passover”, in A Winter in Morocco, London: Henry S. King & Co., […], →OCLC, page 317:
      A coat and trousers of light lilac cloth, the former with an immense black velvet collar and sleeves so full at the shoulder that they resembled gigots, the latter made tight, fearfully tight, to the knees, but bagging gradually to the insteps, where they fell over patent leather boots; […]]

Alternative forms[edit]

Derived terms[edit]

Translations[edit]

type of sleeve — see leg-of-mutton sleeve

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ From the collection of the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, New York City, New York, USA.

References[edit]

  1. ^ “gigot”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Further reading[edit]

Anagrams[edit]

French[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Old French gigue.

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

gigot m (plural gigots)

  1. leg (of some animals kept or hunted for their meat)
    gigot d’agneau ― leg of lamb
    gigot de mouton ― leg of mutton

Further reading[edit]

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