different between gig vs billet

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

English

Pronunciation

• (UK, General American) IPA^(key): /?b?l?t/
• Rhymes: -?l?t

Etymology 1

From Middle English bylet, from Anglo-Norman billette (“list, schedule”), from bille +? -ette, from Latin bulla (“document”).

Noun

billet (plural billets)

1. A short informal letter.
2. A written order to quarter soldiers.

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle French billette (“schedule”), from bullette, diminutive form of bulle (“document”), from Medieval Latin bulla, hence cognate with etymology 1 above.

Noun

billet (plural billets)

1. A place where a soldier is assigned to lodge.
   • 1997, Chris Horrocks, Introducing Foucault, page 9 (Totem Books, Icon Books; ?ISBN

     17 June 1940: Prime Minister Pétain requests armistice. Germans use the Foucaults’ holiday home as officers’ billet. Foucault steals firewood for school from collaborationist militia. Foucault does well at school, but messes up his summer exams in 1940.

2. An allocated space or berth in a boat or ship.
3. (figuratively) Berth; position.
   • 1897, Pall Mall Magazine

     His shafts of satire fly straight to their billet, and there they rankle.

Verb

billet (third-person singular simple present billets, present participle billeting or billetting, simple past and past participle billeted or billetted)

1. (transitive, of a householder etc.) To lodge soldiers, or guests, usually by order.

   • Billeted in so antiquated a mansion.
2. (intransitive, of a soldier) To lodge, or be quartered, in a private house.
3. (transitive) To direct, by a ticket or note, where to lodge.

Translations

Etymology 3

From Middle English billet, bylet, belet, billette, from Old French billette, from bille (“log, tree trunk”), from Vulgar Latin *bilia, probably of Gaulish origin (compare Old Irish bile (“tree”)).

Noun

billet (plural billets)

1. (metallurgy) A semi-finished length of metal.
2. A short piece of wood, especially one used as firewood.
3. A short cutting of sugar cane produced by a harvester or used for planting.
4. (heraldry) A rectangle used as a charge on an escutcheon.
5. (architecture) An ornament in Norman work, resembling a billet of wood, either square or round.
6. (saddlery) A strap that enters a buckle.
7. A loop that receives the end of a buckled strap.

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

Translations

Etymology 4

Noun

billet (plural billets)

1. Alternative form of billard (“coalfish”)

Anagrams

• LIBlet, Litbel

Danish

Etymology

From French billet.

Noun

billet c (singular definite billetten, plural indefinite billetter)

1. ticket (admission to entertainment, pass for transportation)

Inflection

Further reading

• “billet” in Den Danske Ordbog

French

Etymology

From Old French billette, from Latin bulla. See French boulette.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bi.j?/

Noun

billet m (plural billets)

1. ticket
2. note, a brief message
3. (short for billet de banque) banknote

Derived terms

• distributeur de billets

Related terms

• billet de banque (bank note)
• billet-doux
• billette
• billetterie
• billetiste

Descendants

Further reading

• “billet” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).