DCHP-2

Jiggs' dinner Jigg's dinner, Jiggs dinner, Jigg's Dinner DCHP-2 (October 2016)

• n. — Food, Newfoundland

  a dinner of corned beef and cabbage, with potatoes and other vegetables on the side (see Image 1).

  Type: 5. Frequency — Although there has been speculation that Jiggs' dinner originally meant a dinner for fisherman, due to the verb to jig, which means to hoist a weighted hook up sharply (Casselman 1998: 42), it is more likely that the term has its origins in the popular US comic strip Bringing Up Father by George McManus. In this comic strip a nouveau-riche Irish immigrant, Jiggs, cannot give up his lower-class ways, which includes eating his favourite meal of corned beef and cabbage. The comic strip ran in newspapers beginning in 1913 and enjoyed considerable success (see ANB reference). The term Jigg's dinner appears in US newsprint, beyond the comic, as early as 1927, and is usually associated with an Irish-themed dinner or event. In recent years, Jiggs' dinners have come to be associated with Newfoundland due to the island's strong Irish heritage that forms an important part of Newfoundland culture.
  The term is most prevalent in Canada (see Chart 1).
  See also COD-2, s.v. "Jiggs' dinner", which is marked "Cdn (Nfld)". Not found in other Canadian dictionaries, including DNE.