I heard it is a military term but I don't remember the exact meaning. A little help?

TCU are the Horned Frogs, and the term comes from giging frogs. A gig is like a skinny two pronged fork about a foot and a half long. When we played we would say gig'em Ag's -- Gig the frogs. Get it.

Wrong answer. I remembering reading something in the history of ATM that it was a military term.

Gig is the same as a demerit.

Thanks GI that is the answer I was looking for.

quote:

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Gig 'em
At a yell practice before the 1930 TCU game, A&M board of regent Pinky Downs '06 shouted, "What are we going to do to those Horned Frogs?" His muse did not fail him as he improvised, borrowing a term from frog hunting. "Gig 'em, Aggies!" he said as he made a fist with his thumb extended straight up. And with that the first hand sign in the Southwest Conference came into being.

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Gig 'Em

Don't judge me too quickly.

While the above story is the explanation of the thumb extended Gig'em sign it isn't the origin of the term Gig or it's use at Texas A&M. The gig and giging someone is rooted in the schools military history and giving someone a demerit. It was used widely on campus before Pinky Downs brought it to be used agaisn't others teams.

Come on now. Let's be real. I love our military tradition at A&M, but gig simply comes from what frog gigging is. Come on now I mean "demerit'em Ag's" what does that mean.

[This message has been edited by 77 (edited 11/28/2002 8:40p).]

I've only heard the TCU story.

haha... who gives a ****

A gig is a demerit in military circles, but the gig in "Gig 'em, Aggies" comes from frog hunting. Frogs and eels don't make most American's dinner plates any more, so gigging isn't as common as it used to be.

gig is also an old military punishment where the medals, ribbons, and fasteners were cut off a persons uniform and they were forced to leave.

dont remember exactly where i heard this.

Just another story to anger someone....

Way back when there was a sophomore who was the most analretentive SOB and lived on being mean to fish and handing out dimerits (gigs) left and right. So when people would see him on campus they would yell "Gig' Em _____" I forgot the dudes name...shooot..

<<CT'97

While the above story is the explanation of the thumb extended Gig'em sign it isn't the origin of the term Gig or it's use at Texas A&M. The gig and giging someone is rooted in the schools military history and giving someone a demerit. It was used widely on campus before Pinky Downs brought it to be used agaisn't others teams.>>

You of course have documentation to prove this. This would be diaries, regulations and so forth?

The term "gig" wasn't commonly used in other military schools at the time or even today.

Bob- The term IS used by cadets today

<<Ags-R-Better
Bob- The term IS used by cadets today>>

Oh wow!!!! Golly Gee!!!! It was used by Texas A&M Cadets 30 years ago too. Imagine that?!!!

But if you would learn to read, it wasn't necessarily used by Aggie Cadets 100 years ago.

The term GIG isn't necessarily used by Cadets in other Military Schools today. For instance, the term "slug" is generally used at the USMA.

Bob- I appreciate your sacrastic answer and hope that someday you may fall and break an ankle. I was refering to the fact that the cadets at ATM used this term and that this may be a possibility as to where the term GIG EM came from. Thank you and hope you have a bad day today!

Thanks and SLUG EM! JERK

And another thing..BOB..who gives a crap what other military institutions at the time or now call a dimerit? First, it is a stupid topic. Second, surprisingly enough, everyone does things diferently. Just cuz the term ain't used in other military schools doesnt mean its wrong or that there is no possible way it can be used at aTm. Cuz believe it or not, we do some things diferently here.

I agree with 77 and CollegeStationAgFan. The Aggie use of the phrase Gig 'em originated from our rivalry with TCU.

Anyway, from my big dic (see note below):

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gig, n. a dart or harpoon; a fishgig.

gig, v.i. to fish with a gig or fishgig.

gig, v.i. to spear (a fish) with a gig.

gig, n [ME. gigge, whirligig, spinning top; prob. from ON.]
1. a light, two-wheeled, open carriage drawn by one horse.
2. a long, loight ship's boat with oars and sail, usually reserved for the commanding officer.
3. a rowboat used in racing.
4. [for gig mill.] a machine for raising nap on cloth.
5. any toy that is whirled round in play: specifically,k a top or whirligig. [Obs.]

gig, v.i.; giged, pl., pp.; gigging, ppr. to travel in a gig.

gig, v.t. [from a kind of top which, when twirled, threw off a smaller top.] to reproduce another of the same sort. [Obs.]

gig, n. [prob. from ME. gigge (see gig, cariage, etc.) in sense "something light or trivial."]
1. an official record or report of a minor delinquency, as in the army, school, etc, a demerit. [Slang.]
2. punishment for such a delinquency. [Slang.]

gig, v.t.; gigged. pt., pp.; gigging, ppr.
1. to give a gig to [Slang.]
2. to punish with a gig. [Slang.]

gig, n. [origin unknown.]
1. a gathering of musicians for a session of jazz. [Slang.]
2. a job performing music, especially jazz, often one for a single engagement. [Slang.]
3. any job, performance, or routine; stint. [Slang.]

gig, v.i.; gigged, pt., pp.; gigging; ppr. to have an engagement performing music, especially jazz.

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Note: The big dic is, of course, the Oxford English Dictionary. My big dic is the somewhat smaller and less extensive Webster's New Universal Unabridged Dictionary.

If you go to the traditions page it tells you the story that CSAF has posted.

This was a link on the traditions website...Since it still refers to the SWC, I would think this article is pretty old...
http://www.texasmonthly.com/ranch/readme/handsign.html

quote:

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The Southwest Conference may not have the best teams, but it does have the best school signs.
Blame it all on an Aggie named Pinky Downs. A 1906 Texas A&M graduate, Downs was a member of the shcool's board of regents from 1923 to 1933. He was the kind of Aggie who wore a maroon tie every day and who prodded the school into spending an extra $10,000 so that its new swimming pool would be longer than the one at the University of Texas. When the Aggies had a yell practice before the 1930 TCU game, Downs naturally was there. "What are we going to do the those Horned Frogs?" he shouted. His muse did not fail him. "Gig 'em, Aggies!" he improvised, appropriating a term form frog hunting. For emphasis, he made a fist with his thumb extended straight up. The Southwest Conference had its first hand sign.

The primordial image of sticking frogs with a spear captured the essence of Aggieness--a good ol' farm boy who was not so much unsophisticated as anti-sophisticated. When other schools later developed their own hand signs, the signals likewise started out as visual representations of school mascots. But they soon evolved into more. All those horns (long and frog), claws (bear and cougar), and the rest have become totems, symbols of belonging to a tribe. Or a sect: They are, to borrow a phrase from The Book of Common Prayer, "an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace." In Texas it still matters what school you went to and who won the last game. That is why the Southwest Conference, defiled though its reputation may be, remains the best habitat for hand signals since charades. Of the nine SWC schools, more have hand signs (seven) than NCAA investigations (six). For that matter, one school, SMU, has more hand signs than football teams.

For a quarter of a century after Pinky Downs's moment of inspiration, the Aggies had a monopoly on official gestures. But by 1955 archrival UT had fallen on hard times, made harder by a corresponding rise in the fortunes of A&M. A UT cheerleader named Harley Clark syllogized: (1) A&M has a hand sign, (2) A&M is winning, (3) UT has no hand sign, therefore (4) UT is losing. (Such reasoning prowess would later lead Clark, as an Austin judge in 1987, to conclude that the state's system of financing public schools was unconstitutional.) At a pep rally before the TCU game, Clark held up his right hand in a peculiar way. The index and little fingers were sticking up, while the thumb held down the two interior digits--the head of a Longhorn, Clark said. The creation proved not to be the immediate answer to UT's football plight, however, as signless TCU won the next day, 47-20.

Once A&M and UT had hand signs, everyone else wanted one. Even before 1955, SMU students had been raising their index and middle fingers in a generic V for victory. By the late fifties, Mustang rooters had changed the meaning to . . . pony ears. Baylor was next. In 1960 cheerleader Bobby Schrade came up with the idea of holding the hand aloft with all five fingers curved to suggest a bear claw. Only alcohol had a harder time getting accepted on the Baptist campus. For twelve years students and administrators argued whether the sign was sufficiently dignified before it was formally blessed in 1972.

When the University of Houston was seeking admission to the conference in 1972, cheerleaders decided that U of H needed a hand sign, too. The result--the UT sign with the middle finger added--officially represents a cougar claw; unofficially, it indicates the students' attitude toward UT. At Texas Tech, members of a spirit organization called the Saddle Tramps decided in 1971 that the Red Raiders were getting left behind. Emulating Raider Red, the costumed mascot who discharges a brace of large pistols after each Tech score, the Saddle Tramps began brandishing thumb-and-forefinger pistols of their own. TCU cheerleaders began experimenting with hand signs in 1980 on the way to a cheerleading camp in Tennessee. To represent Horned Frogs, they first tried the UT sign with the outer fingers bent at the knuckles. No good: it could be seen as an admission that TCU was only half as good as UT. So they switched to bent index and middle fingers.

Even Rice students occasionally use a sign, but it is not pictured here because university officials, suspecting that a middle finger poked outward has a meaning other than "peck 'em, Owls," have declined to sanction it. Not surprisingly, the only conference school without a sign is Arkansas, whose adherents have a state all to themselves and thus have no need to proclaim in sign language that they Belong.

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quote:

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When the University of Houston was seeking admission to the conference in 1972, cheerleaders decided that U of H needed a hand sign, too. The result--the UT sign with the middle finger added--officially represents a cougar claw; unofficially, it indicates the students' attitude toward UT

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um, actually the story i heard while attending U of H was that it's a cougar paw with one claw smashed. Shasta, the live cougar that used to be their mascot (i don't htink they have a live cougar anymore) had a toe injured at a game once, so the UH hand sign is a three-toed cougar paw.

<<Ags-R-Better
Bob- I appreciate your sacrastic answer and hope that someday you may fall and break an ankle. I was refering to the fact that the cadets at ATM used this term and that this may be a possibility as to where the term GIG EM came from. Thank you and hope you have a bad day today!

Thanks and SLUG EM! JERK>>

Not a problem, it is always nice to deal with a complete idiot, especially one that can't read and can barely write. Perhaps it would be better for you to be honest and take a Long Horn nickname, it is obvious you don't know anything about Texas A&M or it's traditions.

I hope your boyfriend gives you AIDS.


<<Ags-R-Better
And another thing..BOB..who gives a crap what other military institutions at the time or now call a dimerit? First, it is a stupid topic. Second, surprisingly enough, everyone does things diferently. Just cuz the term ain't used in other military schools doesnt mean its wrong or that there is no possible way it can be used at aTm. Cuz believe it or not, we do some things diferently here.>>

Because Sh*t for brains, the traditions and nicknames that came to the Texas A&M Corps of Cadets came from other Military Colleges. Perhaps you should learn to read. Maybe you can get your boyfriend to read to you while he is giving you AIDS.

quote:

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I was refering to the fact that the cadets at ATM used this term and that this may be a possibility as to where the term GIG EM came from.

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If the use of the phrase preceded the use of the word "gig" to mean "demerit", then your conjecture would be clearly wrong.

In other words, you shouldn't assume that the word "gig" was already in use unless you clearly state that assumption.

So you should have said something like:

quote:

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IF the cadets at ATM used this term then this may be a possibility as to where the term GIG EM came from.

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[This message has been edited by eric76 (edited 11/30/2002 7:05p).]

Also, I don't see any reason why anyone would use their thumb as a sign of a "gig" as in "demerit".

Furthermore, because of the use of gigs for frogs (I even used to have a couple of frog gigs as a kid) and the TCU mascot being horned frogs, the generally accepted origin of the phrase is entirely reasonable.

I don't find the conjecture that it is related to demerits to be at all reasonable.

[This message has been edited by eric76 (edited 11/30/2002 7:01p).]

I found this thread pointless and a waste of my time until I read the interactions between Ags-R-Better and BOB - you boys rock my face off!

I particulary appreciated

quote:

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Bob- I appreciate your sacrastic answer and hope that someday you may fall and break an ankle.

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But then this childish remark was spaded by:

quote:

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I hope your boyfriend gives you AIDS.

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This topic is now moving to my favorites list where I can return to read at my leisure.

Carry on.


[This message has been edited by chikenlady (edited 11/30/2002 7:41p).]