Gigot
January 11th 2025
As chefs and foodies are no doubt aware, gigot makes a delicious dinner choice. Defined as “A leg of mutton; also used of pork and beef”, this word entered the language from French, though its ultimate origin is unknown.
The term has a long history within Scots. DSL records an early use from 1791 in Mrs Frazer’s The Practice of Cookery: “To broil a leg of Lamb: Cut off the loin and boil the gigot”.
Curious readers may even wish to try this recommendation from F Marian Macneill’s 1946 Recipes from Scotland: “A Gigot of Mutton… Trim the gigot and rub all over with the sugar”.
In 2005 a correspondent from Edinburgh told DSL that the word was still being used by the meat industry: “Gigot is used for pork as well as lamb and also for beef in wholesale usage”.
However, it doesn’t only appear behind the scenes. Take a look at this example from February 2022 when the Largs and Millport Weekly reported on the local ‘Ladies who Lunch’ group’s first post-pandemic meal. The menu for their Robert Burns tour at Ayrshire’s Seamill Hydro Hotel ran as follows: “… the delicious lunch menu will be; roast gigot of lamb, with a leek & nutmeg pomme puree, braised carrots & a rich thyme-scented red wine jus followed by a meringue nest filled with vanilla cream, mixed berries & chocolate shavings”. A wee bit fancier than our Bard would have been used to!
Dictionaries of the Scots Language would like to thank Bob Dewar for illustrating our Scots Word of the Week feature.
