Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)
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First published 1956 (SND Vol. IV).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
GIG, n.2 Also geeg. A steam winding engine (Sc. 1886 J. Barrowman Mining Terms 32); “now obs. in this sense but still used in Ayrsh. to denote any kind of winder” (Edb.6 1944). [gi:g]Lth. 1842 in P. McNeill Tranent (1883) 29:
I was filling tubs at the pit bottom, when the gig clicked too early.Hdg. 1845 Stat. Acc.2 II. 287:
This mode of raising the coal still continues, except where a gig or small steam engine is substituted.Fif. 1890 A. Burgess Poute 64:
Ye're pirly-wheels and Geeg ar awl t'skunt, And awl the skluits — the stuff kaad koll — is Brunt.Lnl. 1925 H. M. Cadell Rocks w.Lth. 353:
The original winding beam engines with vertical cylinders formerly known as “gigs” were also replaced by horizontal coupled engines.
Combs.: †1. gig house, “a winding engine house” (Sc. 1886 J. Barrowman Mining Terms 32); 2. gig(s)man, the man in charge of the gig; 3. gig pit, a pit fitted with a gig (Edb.6 1944).2. Ayr. 1842 Children in Mines ii. 369:
Some o' the colliers . . . learns 'em [their boys] to be “gigmen” [i.e. to manage the engine].Gsw. 1862 J. Gardner Jottiana 72:
The gigman noo . . . lets the cage doon the pit mou.wm.Sc. 1928 Scots Mag. (July) 266:
“My faither used tae be geegsman at the Flower” . . . “Mony a chase I got frae him when I was a laddie, for rinnin the bogies at the pit.”w.Fif. 1952 B. Holman Diamond Panes 83:
The victims of the explosion in the William Pit in the seventies when the “gigsman,” Mr Arnott, and pithead girls were killed.
