“Home again, home again, jiggity-jig!” A listener wonders about the origin of this phrase her Mother often used. Grant and Martha trace it back to another mother: Mother Goose. The full line goes, “To market, to market, to buy a fat pig, home again, home again, jiggity-jig.” It does not, contrary to a highly visited Google result, originate from the movie Blade Runner (though it’s a cute scene nonetheless). This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Jiggity-Jig”
Hello, you have A Way with Words.
Hi there, this is Marie, and I’m calling from Anna, Texas.
Hi Marie, welcome to the program.
Hi Marie, Anna, Texas?
Anna, a little bit north of Dallas.
Okay.
So I have a burning question of my family. Every vacation, every time we enter into the driveway from driving home, my mom would exclaim, home again, home again, jiggity jig. And we have no idea where that comes from or what the heck she’s talking about.
Do you know what? My mother did the very same thing.
Oh, dear.
Every time. I can remember her switching off the ignition, and there’s this silence, and then she says, home again, home again, jiggity-jig.
Yeah.
Where does that come from?
We should form a support group.
I know, right?
Yeah.
But wait a second. Mother Goose, right?
Yeah, Mother Goose. It’s the last line of a bit of Mother Goose, right?
Yeah, did your mother read Mother Goose rhymes to you, Marie?
Yeah.
How does it go?
And I kind of seem to remember something about a fat pig or…
Yeah, yeah.
To market, to market, to buy a fat pig. Home again, home again, jiggity jig. To market, to market, to buy a fat hog.
Okay.
Home again, home again, jiggity jog.
Yeah.
Mystery solved.
Mystery solved.
This is one of the most transmitted after, let’s say, the Bible, right?
Right.
Mother Goose rhymes are everywhere.
Yeah, kind of universal.
Yeah.
My son, who I admit has a lot of books, has probably six different versions of the Mother Goose rhymes and six different books.
It’s tons of stuff.
Well, that’s interesting.
Yeah.
Well, great.
I’m glad to hear that.
I’m glad to hear you weren’t deprived of Mother Goose when you were a kid.
Me too.
I was worried there for a second.
No, it wasn’t deprived.
Well-rounded.
Did we put the fire out?
Yes, you did.
Everything’s cool now?
Thank you so much.
Our pleasure.
Glad to help.
Okay.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Bye-bye.
Bye-bye.
