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A.Word.A.Day--fizgig

This week's theme: words that have many unrelated meanings.

fizgig (FIZ-gig) noun

1. A squib: a type of firework made with damp powder that makes a hissing sound when exploding.
[From fizz, a clipping of fizzle, from fysel (to break wind).]

2. A kind of top spun by pulling a string wound around it.
3. A flirty, frivolous girl.
[Both from Middle English gig (a flighty girl, a whipping-top).]

4. A kind of harpoon with barbs for spearing fish.
[From Spanish fisga (fish spear).]

5. A police informer.
[Australian slang.]

See more usage examples of fizgig in Vocabulary.com's dictionary.

-Anu Garg (garg wordsmith.org)

"When [the speaker] argues that philosophies and theologies are the fizgigs of the brain, he expresses an idea which Browning has repeatedly expressed in 'Ferishtah's Fancies'."
Edward Dowden; Robert Browning (biography); 1904.

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