different between employment vs gig

English

Etymology

From employ (itself from Middle French employer, from Middle French empleier, from Latin implic? (“enfold, involve, be connected with”), itself from in- + plic? (“fold”)) +? -ment

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?m?pl??m?nt/, /?m?pl??m?nt/

Noun

employment (countable and uncountable, plural employments)

1. The work or occupation for which one is used, and often paid
2. The act of employing
3. A use, purpose

   The personnel director handled the whole employment procedure

4. The state of being employed
   • 1853, Herman Melville, Bartleby, the Scrivener, in Billy Budd, Sailor and Other Stories, New York: Penguin Books, 1968; reprint 1995 as Bartleby, ISBN 0 14 60.0012 9, p.3:

     At the period just preceding the advent of Bartleby, I had two persons as copyists in my employment, and a promising lad as an office-boy.

5. An activity to which one devotes time
6. (economics) The number or percentage of people at work

Synonyms

• employ
• hire

Antonyms

• unemployment
• underemployment

Related terms

Translations

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: g?g, IPA^(key): /???/
• Rhymes: -??

Etymology 1

Of uncertain origin. According to one theory, from Middle English gige (“fiddle”) and Middle English *gygge (found in Middle English whyrlegygge (“a top, whirligig, a rotating device”)), akin to Old Norse gígja (“fiddle”) and German Geige (“violin”). The earliest usage of the word gig in the sense of “any, usual temporary, paid job” found by linguist Geoffrey Nunberg is from a 1952 piece by Jack Kerouac about his gig as a part-time brakeman for the Southern Pacific railroad.

Noun

gig (plural gigs)

1. (informal, music) A performing engagement by a musical group; or, generally, any job or role, especially for a musician or performer.

   I caught one of the Rolling Stones' first gigs in Richmond.

   Hey, when are we gonna get that hotel gig again?
2. (informal, by extension) Any job, especially one that is temporary.

   I had this gig as a file clerk but it wasn't my style so I left.

   Hey, that guy's got a great gig over at the bike shop. He hardly works all day.

3. (archaic, slang) Fun; frolics; a spree.
   • 1820, Randall's Diary

     In search of lark, or some delicious gig, / The mind delights on, when 'tis in prime twig.

4. A forked spear for catching fish, frogs, or other small animals.

   Synonym: leister

5. (historical) A two-wheeled horse-drawn carriage.
   • 1868, The Family Herald

     Years ago the cravers for sensation were delighted with the real gig and horse with the aid of which Mr. Thurtell murdered Mr. Weare.

   • 1967, William Styron, The Confessions of Nat Turner, Vintage 2004, page 77:

     the room grew stifling warm and vapor clung to the windowpanes, blurring the throng of people still milling outside the courthouse, a row of tethered gigs and buggies, distant pine trees in a scrawny, ragged grove.

6. (Southern England, nautical) A six-oared sea rowing boat commonly found in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly.
7. (nautical) An open boat used to transport the captain of a ship, the captain's gig.
8. (US, military) A demerit received for some infraction of military dress or deportment codes.

   I received gigs for having buttons undone.

Derived terms

• gigful
• gig-goer

Translations

References

• (fun, frolics): 1873, John Camden Hotten, The Slang Dictionary

Verb

gig (third-person singular simple present gigs, present participle gigging, simple past and past participle gigged)

1. To fish or catch with a gig, or fish spear.
2. To engage in musical performances.

   The Stones were gigging around Richmond at the time

3. To make fun of; to make a joke at someone's expense, often condescending.

   His older cousin was just gigging him about being in love with that girl from school.

4. (US, military) To impose a demerit for an infraction of a dress or deportment code.

   His sergeant gigged him for an unmade bunk.

Translations

Derived terms

• gigster

References

Etymology 2

Clipping of giga-, as in gigabyte, gigaunit, etc.

Noun

gig (plural gig or gigs)

1. (colloquial, computing) Clipped form of gigabyte.

   This picture is almost a gig; don't you wanna resize it?

   My new computer has over 500 gigs of hard drive space.

2. (slang) Any unit having the SI prefix giga-

Translations

Etymology 3

From Middle English gigge, from Old French gigues (“a gay, lively girl”), from Old Norse gikkr (“a pert person”), related to Danish gjæk (“a fool; jester”), Swedish gäck (“a fool; jester; wag”). More at geck.

Noun

gig (plural gigs)

1. (obsolete) A playful or wanton girl; a giglot.

Synonyms

• fizgig
• giglot

Etymology 4

Probably from Latin gignere (“to beget”).

Verb

gig (third-person singular simple present gigs, present participle gigging, simple past and past participle gigged)

1. To engender.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Dryden to this entry?)

References

• “gig”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–present.
• gig on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• IgG, igg

Welsh

Noun

gig

1. Soft mutation of cig (“meat”).

Mutation

Zhuang

Pronunciation

• (Standard Zhuang) IPA^(key): /kik?/
• Tone numbers: gig⁸
• Hyphenation: gig

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Chinese ? (MC ??k?).

Adverb

gig (Sawndip form ?, old orthography gig)

1. extremely; highly; very

Etymology 2

Borrowed from Chinese ? (MC kek?).

Verb

gig (old orthography gig)

1. to provoke; to agitate