"Well I'll be Jiggered!"

[Gretnagersh]

Does this phrase/saying have racist origins from the 1800's deep south of the usa?
Me and a friend was having an in depth conversation about racist terms and we came to "Jigs" which is an offensive nickname for the racist "N" word and the we talked about the phrase/saying "Well I'll be jiggered!" and wondered if this has stemmed from it?
If it doesn't where has this phrase/saying came from and what is it's true origins?

[Davethedog]

No

Jigger is a mesaure of alchohol, so to be jiggered is drunk.

[rojash]

Not according to any of the online dictionaries. It's of British origin, not US. And it's been suggested that it's a euphemism for buggered.

[jno]

sounds like buggered to me. I don't think it has racial connotations.

[whiskeryron]

I rather suspect that it came from the phrase ' Well I'll be bu****ed.

WR.

[Gretnagersh]

Thanks guys but that's one of the definitions and I'm after the origin or origins of this peculiar phrase/saying and I thought when someone was surprised or shocked they'd say "Well I'll be jiggered" to convey their surprise/.shock?

[fredkins]

Jiggered.Informal Damned,blowed.Scottish and N.estern dialect Tired out.Euphemism,bu**ered.As in my dictionary.

[jno]

they'd say "Well I'll be buggered" in the same situation. English has a lot of euphemisms for swearwords (Christ> crikey, cripes; Jesus > gee, jeepers; God > gosh, golly; bloody > blooming, blinking).

[Gretnagersh]

Does it say anywhere that the word jiggered is a new word for buggered?
As above do we know exactly where this phrase/saying came from without speculating?

[jno]

highly unlikely that we ever will - this is almost certainly something that was spoken long before it was written down. Dictionaires only record written speech.

[Kiki-frog]

I'd heard of jigger as a measure of alcohol, and thought it meant being drunk rather than buggered. Could be a case of cause and effect, I suppose.

[Gretnagersh]

Jno but surely diaries or journals would speak of things that the writer could remember or maybe things that their grandparents used to say?
Where would be a good place to look, old library records maybe? Someone has to know, or are there many phrases and sayings that have no recorded origin?
Is there a book you can recommend that has phrases and sayings without origins so that I can leaf through it and maybe try and put the pieces back together myself?

[tonyav]

I thought it was a measure of alcohol as well Kiki.

[Gretnagersh]

Look here I can't c&p the paragraph in fear of causing offence but look at the letter "J" section

http://en.wikipedia.o.../List_of_ethnic_slurs

[Kiki-frog]

I occasionally used to drink in a pub called the Jigger when I was a student. The head barman did have a very strange walk now I think about it. Hmmm.

[jno]

the full version of the Oxford dictionary lists the earliest known uses of words, as prvided by readers of everything over the last century. They occasionally have TV programmes in which they ask for viewers' help in tracing words whose history they don't know.

It quotes an 1837 mention of jiggered (it also appears in Great Expectations) but says its origin is disputed. if you do come across an earlier mention, let them know and they'll include it.

But as I say, my own guess is that was spoken long before it was written, because people are more likely (in my view) to use euphemisms of this sort when speaking than when writing.

[Gretnagersh]

Okay thanks jno and the rest of you. I do have a mental list of other phrases and sayings that I need to get to the bottom to and I hope we have more luck with them then this one although it was still refreshing to get the grey matter going.

[douglas9401]

My parents both used the word to express tiredness.

[Quizmonster]

The coarse American slang word you refer to in the question is nowhere recorded prior to the 1920s, though a slightly different variant dates back to twenty years earlier. As already pointed out above, 'jiggered' had already been in use in Britain eighty years earlier, so it seems perfectly plain that there is no connection such as you suggest between the words.