Brewer's: Gig-manity

Respectability. A word invented by Carlyle. A witness in the trial of John Thurtell said, “I always thought him [Thurtell] a respectable man.” And being asked by the judge what he meant, replied, “He [Thurtell] kept a gig.”

“A princess of the blood, yet whose father had sold his inexpressibles ... in a word, Gigmanity disgigged.” —Carlyle: The Diamond Necklace, chap. v.

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