Zigzag

Zigzag (pronounced zig-zag)

(1) A line, course, or progression characterized by sharp turns first to one side and then to the other.

(2) One of a series of such turns, as in a line or path (typically in a repeating “Z-like” pattern.

(3) Proceeding or formed in a zigzag:

(4) In sewing, dressmaking etc, a pattern or stitches in this shape.

(5) In military use (land, sea & air), to move or manoeuvre in a zigzaging motion, usually as a form of evasion.

(6) In figurative use, something performed in a non-lineal way, characterized by frequent changes, often in response to external influences such as criticism.

(7) As “zigzag rule”, a rule composed of light strips of wood joined by rivets so as to be foldable, all the opening and closing parts being in parallel planes.

(8) In World War I (1914-1918) US military slang, a slang term for “someone drunk”.

1712: From the mid-seventeenth century French zigzag which replaced the earlier ziczac, from the German zickzack, from the Walloon ziczac, a gradational compound based on Zacke (tack) (familiar in English use as the “zigzagging technique” used in yachting).  It’s thought the coining of the original may have been influenced by the letter “Z” which appears twice, a “Z” able to be interpreted as a representation of a “zigzag movement”.  Less supported among etymologists is the alternative theory the German Zickzack was from Zacke (point; tooth; prong; jagged projection).  The earliest known use in German was to describe military siege approaches, a use adopted (by analogy) by early English landscape architects (then known as “gardeners”) to the layout of appropriately shaped paths in parks.  It was used as an adjective from the mid eighteenth century, the first appearing in 1774.  The brand of cigarette paper (a favorite of many stoners because the glue was said to make joints “easier to roll”) was first sold in 1909.  The adjectival use is common in fabric design and dressmaking, the zigzag pattern widely used.  In sewing, a zigzag stitch is one of the standard set in sewing machines, used usually to finish edges, the attachment to create such stitches known as a zigzagger.  The hyphenated spelling zig-zag is common.  Zigzag is a noun, verb adjective & adverb; zigzaggedness & zigzagger are nouns and zigzagged & zigzagging are verbs; the noun plural is zigzags.

ZIG is used as an acronym for a number of purposes including (1) zoster immune globulin (a globulin fraction of pooled plasma from patients who have recovered from herpes zoster and used prophylactically for immuno-suppressed children exposed to varicella and therapeutically to ameliorate varicella infection), (2) a general-purpose imperative, statically typed, compiled programming language intended as a modern successor to the C language and is (3) the abbreviation of Zimbabwe Gold, the official national currency of Zimbabwe since April 2024; it began in October 2023 as a gold-backed digital token in October 2023.  ZAG is the International Air Transport Association’s (IATA) code for Zagreb International Airport, Croatia and to describe Zymosan-Activated Granulocytes (a type of white blood cell (granulocytes) that have been stimulated by exposure to zymosan, a polysaccharide derived from the cell walls of yeast species like Saccharomyces cerevisiae).

Lindsay Lohan with Kim Kardashian (b 1980) with strategically placed “gash” in dress.

The feature may be described as either a “zig” or “zag” because the terms are interchangeable.  However, were there to be two connected gashes which assume opposite directions: that would be a “zigzag”.  While the nature of the formation of the words “zig” & “zag” is not unique, it is unusual in that, dating from the late eighteenth century, both were extractions: back-formation from “zigzag”.  A notable quirk of zig & zag is that interchangeably they can be used to mean the same thing yet when used in the same sentence, they mean “to move in opposite directions”.  In separate use, it thus matters not whether one says “she zigged around” or “she zagged around”; the meaning is the same.  Used together however, the rule is strict: she will always be described as “zigzagging” and never “zagzigging”.  Zigzag is often intended to be humorous and when applied to politicians it’s a way of saying they are “being evasive” or “flip-flopping”.

Lindsay Lohan wearing a Tolani zig zag scarf (given it was winter, the piece should probably be described as a “muffler”) in the style made famous by the Italian fashion house Missoni, New York, November 2007.

Founded in 1953 by Ottavio (1921-2013) and Rosita (b 1931) Missoni, the house became well-known during the 1960s for their vibrant and colorful knitwear, the signature motif of which was a distinctive zigzag pattern.  The technology which made the garments possible was not new, the Missoni’s “re-discovering” the long discarded “Rachel” machines traditionally used to create the shawls worn in the south of Italy, devices which permitted an almost infinite variation of lines and styles within a given design; such things were of course possible using other machinery but the versatile Rachels allowed changes to be integrated into the production line process, making possible economies of scale not available to other manufacturers; all that was required was a quick juggling of the assembly’s array of multi-colored points and what would emerge was fabric with horizontal and vertical lines in a rainbow of colors.  Ottavio Missoni did acknowledge the stylistic debt owed, once saying: “For a thousand years, the Incas have been copying my knit sweaters…”

A swatch of Missoni's signature zigzag.

The event which made Missoni famous was at the time thought scandalous although, given what these days is worn on catwalks and red carpets, it seems quaint indeed.  After their first, well-received, catwalk show in 1966, Missoni was invited to the event held in Florence’s Pitti Palace in April 1967 and it was only during last-minute rehearsals Rosita Missoni became aware the shape and color of the models’ bras were clearly visible, distracting attention from the unique zigzagging patterns which were the brand’s signature.  With no time to arrange a fix like skin-toned bodysuits, her solution was for the models to remove their bras; that solved the problem but replaced one distraction with another, the assembled pack of photographers most impressed because, under venue’s unusually bright lights, the pieces became transparent.  Since dubbed “The Battle of the Bras”, at the time not all thought the look “appropriate” but it generated much publicity and was one of the reasons Milan would in the late 1960s emerge as one of the world’s fashion capitals, the photographers following the Missonis back to Milan.  The couple weren’t invited to the next year’s Pitti Palace show but Vogue, Marie Claire, Elle, and Harper's Bazaar all provided generous coverage and the Rubicon had been crossed, Yves Saint-Laurent (1936–2008) in 1968 displaying the “see-through” look.  Since then, it’s never gone away.

PLA Shenyang J-8II (left) and USN Lockheed EP-3E ARIES II (right)

The phrase “he zigged when he should have zagged” came into common use in the mid-twentieth century and is believed to have been popularized by radio sports commentators who needed something “graphical” to paint a “word picture” of why a football player had been tackled.  The origin is thought to be sardonic military humor and a euphemism for “he was killed while attempting an evasive maneuver”.  An example of “he zigged when he should have zagged” was the fate of the unfortunate Lieutenant Commander (shao xiao) Wang Wei (1969-2001) of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) Navy of the PRC (People’s Republic of China), killed when his Shenyang J-8II interceptor (a Chinese knock-off of the old Soviet-era MiG 21) collided with a US Navy Lockheed EP-3E ARIES II signals reconnaissance aircraft (a development of the old P-3 Orion).  The affair became known as the “Hainan Island Incident” because the damaged EP-3 was forced to land on the Chinese territory of Hainan Island, the ensuring diplomatic spat played out over the next ten days, resolved by the US ambassador to Beijing handing to the PRC’s foreign minister the “Letter of the two sorries”; US surveillance flights have continued and the PLA is now more cautious in its shadowing.  US pilots noted the dark linguistic coincidence of the name “Wang Wei” being pronounced “wong way”.

Jewish Museum Berlin (2001), overhead view (left), exterior (centre) and interior (right).

Designed by US architect Daniel Libeskind (b 1946) and opened in 2001, Berlin’s Jewish Museum is noted for the “zigzag” theme reflected in its floor plan, exterior surfaces and interior detailing.  The “gashes”, a recurring motif, are integral to the design and described as “voids”, deep, empty spaces which “cut their way” through the building, serving as symbols representing the absence, loss, and emptiness left by the Holocaust.  The architect’s idea was to evoke a sense of disorientation & fragmentation, recalling the often disrupted history of the Jewish people in Germany (the Holocaust only the most severe of the pogroms suffered).  According to the museum, the voids are intended to summon in visitors periods of reflection, silence, and remembrance; a recall of what irrevocably has been lost.  In terms of design & effect, one of the most celebrated voids is the "Memory Void" in which houses the installation Shalekhet (Fallen Leaves) by Israeli painter & sculptor Menashe Kadishman (1932–2015), constructed with thousands of metallic faces spread across the floor.  On these, visitors walk, producing a haunting sound many report as “intensifying the emotional experience”.  Voids are not unusual in museums, galleries and other exhibition spaces but unlike some, those in the Jewish Museum contain no exhibits, reminding visitor of the void in Jewish culture rent by the Holocaust.

Chevron

Chevron (pronounced shev-ruhn (U) or shev-run (non-U))

(1) In heraldry, an ordinary in the form of an inverted V-shaped charge on a shield, one of the most ancient of the English ordinaries.

(2) An insignia consisting of stripes meeting at an angle, worn on the sleeve by non-commissioned officers (NCO) in the military, police officers etc, as a mark of rank (variously upwards or downwards), length or service or for other purposes (usually always upwards).  In casual use, the use to the display the NCO ranks are referred to as “stripes”.

(3) In interior decorating, an ornamental form in a zigzag pattern used often on moldings and also called a dancette; the design most historically most associated with romanesque architecture in France, England and Sicily.

(4) In the manufacture of fabrics, as chevron weave, the application of the shape (the herringbone a subset of this use).

(5) In road-traffic management (1) a pattern of horizontal black and white V-shapes on a road sign indicating a sharp bend (usually in the plural) or (2) one of the V-shaped markings on the surface of roads used to indicate minimum distances between vehicles (use varies between jurisdictions).

(6) In design, any V-shaped pattern or device.

(7) In language, an informal term for the guillemet, either of the punctuation marks “«” or “»”, used in several languages to indicate passages of speech (the equivalent convention in the English language the same placement of inverted commas (“_”).

(8) In language, as “inverted chevron”, an informal term for a háček, a diacritical mark resembling an inverted circumflex.

(9) In publishing, an angle bracket used both as a typographic and scientific symbol.

(10) In architecture, a rafter (a specialized type of strut or beam) of this shape, usually load-bearing and supporting a structure such as a roof and sometimes exposed, doubling as a decorative device.

(11) In aerospace, components fashioned in a saw-tooth patterns used internally (and externally (briefly) on exhaust nacelles as a noise-suppression mechanism) in jet engines.

(12) In anatomy, a bone of this shape.

(13) In entomology, the moth Eulithis testata.

(14) In geology, (1) a fold of this shape in layers of rock and (2), a sediment deposit in this shape across the surface.

(15) In pediatric medicine, as chevron nail, a rare transient fingernail ridge pattern seen only in children.

(16) In mathematics, as chevron plot, a technique of data representation.

(17) In computing, the informal term for the angle bracket when used in HTML (also sometimes called the “wicket” reflecting the English origins of HTML in the Conseil européen pour la recherche nucléaire (CERN; the European Organization for Nuclear Research)).

(18) In folk arts & crafts, as chevron bead, glass beads in this shape.

(19) A style of moustache in this shape.

(21) In music, a wavy line indicating a trill

(22) In the optical devices associated with ballistics, a symbol used in reticles in firearm scopes.

1300–1350: From the Middle English cheveroun, from the Old French chevron (rafter; chevron), from chévre (a goat), from the Vulgar Latin capriōnem & capriōn- (stem of capriō), ultimately from the Latin caper (goat).  The alternative spelling was cheveron which in commercial use is still used, presumably as means to achieve product differentiation.  Chevron is a noun & verb, noun, chevroned & chevrony (also as chevronny) are adjectives, chevroning & chevroned are verbs and chevronwise is an adverb; the noun plural is chevrons.

Late twelfth century doorway at Gradefes Convent, Spain.

The technical class into which architects classify decorative (as opposed to structural) chevrons is “inflected ornament” or, in the slang the “zig-zag” (or zigzag) and they were widely used in romanesque architecture in France, England and Sicily.  In this decorative mode, it’s though at least one inspiration for their use was the metal casings frequently seen in early wood columns.  The meaning of the word in French is said to be based on structural engineering, the reference the rafters of a shallow roof, the idea based on there being some resemblance to the rather angular hind legs of a goat, the Vulgar Latin capriōnem & capriōn being from the Classical Latin caper (goat).  This actually had echoes in the Latin capreolus (props, stays, short pieces of timber joined at angles for support) which translated literally as “wild goat; chamoix”.  However, some historians of architecture doubt the story about the hind legs, suggesting the image was more likely the horns of a butting goat and there’s some support for this in that the first use of the word in English was in heraldry when chevrons began appearing on shields, the horns of a charging beast presumably more appealing to the military mind than the beast’s back legs.

1938 Citroën 11B Traction Avant Coupé (sometime referred to as the Faux Cabriolet) with the company’s distinctive double chevron emblem in the radiator grill.

Designed by French engineer André Lefèbvre (1894-1964) and Italian industrial designer Flaminio Bertoni (1903-1964), the Citroën Traction Avant was introduced in 1933 and was the machine which more than any other legitimized both unitary construction (ie no separate chassis) and the front-wheel-drive (FWD) configuration (Traction Avant translates literally as “front traction”) in mass-produced cars.  Although a great success and in production until 1956 (with severe disruptions during wartime occupation 1940-1944), the costs incurred in its development and the tooling needed for volume production meant that by 1934 the company was compelled to declare bankruptcy, taken over by Michelin, the most exposed creditor by virtue of having for some time supplied tyres on the basis of “delayed payment”.  Although total Traction Avant production exceeded 760,000, there were only 15 coupés, all from the pre-war years and of these, only four were built in 1938.

1935 Citroën TA22 Traction Avant prototypes, cabriolet (left) and saloon (right).  To mark the installation of a V8, an appropriate numeral adorned the double chevron.  Unfortunately, because the chevrons weren’t inverted, the chance to make a “V8” statement was missed.  Perhaps the French found such a thing vulgar.

Another genuine rarity among the Traction Avants was the TA22, an intended top-of-the-range version equipped with a 3.8 litre (232 cubic inch) V8 created by joining two of Citroën’s 1.9 litre (116 cubic inch) four-cylinder units in a common crankcase.  Apparently 20 were built but the combination of the financial turmoil of bankruptcy and Michelin’s subsequent rationalization saw the project abandoned and although there are many stories about the fate of the prototypes, eighty years on none have ever surfaced so it’s reasonable to assume none survived (at least not with the unique power-train) although there have been some privately built (partial) recreations, most using some variation of the contemporary Ford Flathead V8 including the 2.2 litre (136 cubic inch) version which was used in Europe or the later 2.4 litre (144 cubic inch) unit built by Ford’s French operation (the tooling for which was sold to Simca which, in small volumes, offered V8 cars between 1954-1961.

Daimler SP250 (1959-1964).  Citroën’s double chevron remains their corporate emblem even though they no longer produce interesting or innovative machinery, their range in recent decades dreary and derivative.  Many others however use chevrons and inverted chevrons from time to time, sometimes as part of emblems as Cadillac has done and sometimes as a decoration.  Quite what the designers thought a chevron added to the Daimler SP250’s catfish-like face isn’t recorded but opinion seems to remain divided because some owners appear to have removed the embellishment.  Daimler didn't take advantage of the chevron to add an "8" either, even though that the time their marvelous little hemi-head 2.5 litre (155 cubic inch) V8 was a unique selling point.  They may have thought the splendid exhaust note was a sufficient advertisement.  

Boeing 747-8 with chevrons in the engine nacelles.

Not all exhaust notes were as pleasing as those emitted by the Daimler V8s and for some years Boeing produced passenger airliners with chevrons cut into the engine nacelles, a trick which reduced the blast noise by up to 15 decibels on the ground and in the forward cabin, the engineers referring to this as “fan-tone” adjustment.  Boeing defined and patented the technology as part of its second Quiet Technology Demonstrator (QTD2) program in 2005 and it was adopted (regardless of whether the installed engine was supplied by General Electric, Rolls-Royce, Pratt & Whitney or CFM) for the 787 Dreamliner, 737 MAX aircraft and even the 747-8, the last generation of the old workhorse.  One benefit of a lower fan-tone was that Boeing was able to reduce the mass of sound deadening fitted to the fuselage by some 600 lbs (272 kg), something which made a measurable difference to the rate of fuel burn.  The QTD2 programme was conducted in conjunction with General Electric and the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), using a Boeing 777-300ER as a benchmark device, a notable choice given it was already the quietest in its class.

Lindsay Lohan in chevron themed ensemble with gladiator sandals, Ibiza, Spain, July 2014.

Curiously, given they were dealing with the same physics Airbus never used the chevrons on the nacelles of their airplanes and according to them, Boeing’s patent had no effect on their decision.  Airbus say they detected no advantages when testing the chevrons but there was a penalty because fuel consumption increased.  Instead, Airbus developed what they call a “zero splice” acoustic inner barrel to lower the fan-tone, the combination of new-generation insulation materials and the zero-splice’s “high-bypass” technology achieving a similar outcome, without the additional weight and fuel burn induced by the chevrons.  Boeing too has recently announced development of the chevrons would not continue and despite the early publicity shots of the 777X being built with the chevrons, the production versions have appeared without them.  That attracted some comment and Boeing released a statement which indicated the change was part of normal product development and that while the chevrons were at the time a way to achieve noise reduction, ongoing research has found a method which achieves that without the associated costs in drag, weight and thus fuel burn.  The essence of the new system appears to be the application of a honeycomb acoustic treatment in strategic areas of the exhaust ducting, the drilling of thousands of holes in the composite skin to disperse and capture noise in the core.  It’s noted however chevrons, for many reasons, remain an essential part of many internal components in jet engines, as they’ve been since the early days of the technology in the 1930s.

Indent

Indent (pronounced in-dent)

(1) To form deep recesses in something.

(2) In typography, to begin a line or lines at a greater or less distance from the margin; to set in or back from the margin, as the first line of a paragraph (the “hanging indent” pulls the line out into the margin).

(3) To cut or tear a document (especially a contract or deed in duplicate) so the irregular lines may be matched to confirm its authenticity

(4) To cut or tear the edge of (copies of a document) in an irregular way.

(5) To make tooth-like notches in something; to notch.

(6) To indenture, as an apprentice (mostly archaic).

(7) In inventory control or stock management, to draw an order upon stock.

(8) In military use (originally under the Raj), a requisition or order for supplies, sent to the commissariat of an army (later adopted in commerce generally to mean “to place an order for a good or commodity, usually for foreign goods, historically through an agent).

(9) To enter into an agreement by indenture; make a compact.

(10) In US financial history, a certificate (or intended certificate), issued by the government of the United States at the close of the Revolution, for the principal or interest of the public debt; at the close of the Revolutionary War for the principal or interest due on the public debt.

(13) In steel fabrication, to form a pattern on metal.

(14) An alternative word for indentation.

(15) A class of stamp; an impression made in the paper (as distinct from a wax seal which sat atop and was indented with a seal).

(16) Formally commit to doing something; to engage someone (both obsolete and based on the notion of the arrangement being formalized with an “indented document” even after the practice has ceased).

(17) To crook or turn; to wind in and out; to zigzag (obsolete).

1350–1400: From the Middle English, from the Old French endenter, a back formation from indented (having tooth-like notches).  The verb indent in the sense of “to dent or press in” emerged in the early fifteenth century and was etymologically distinct from the contemporary verbs indenten & endenten (to make notches; to give (something) a toothed or jagged appearance (which was used also to convey “to make a legal indenture, make a written formal agreement or contract”)) and was from the twelfth century Old French endenter (to notch or dent, give a serrated edge to) and from the Medieval Latin indentare & indentātus, the construct in Latin being in- (in-) + dent (tooth) from dēns, from the Proto-Italic dents, from the primitive Indo-European dónts and cognate with the Ancient Greek ὀδούς (odoús), the Sanskrit दत् (dát), the Lithuanian dantìs, the Old English tōþ (source of the English tooth) and the Armenian ատամ (atam), from the primitive Indo-European root dent- (tooth).  The prefix -in is quirky because it can act either to negate or intensify.  The general rule is that when pre-pended to a noun or adjective, it reinforces the quality signified and when pre-pended to an adjective, it negates the meaning, the latter mostly in words borrowed from French.  The Latin prefix in- was from the Proto-Italic en-, from the primitive Indo-European n̥- (not), the zero-grade form of the negative particle ne (not) and was akin to ne-, nē & nī.  In Modern English it is from the Middle English in-, from Old English in- (in, into), from the Proto-Germanic in, from the primitive Indo-European en.  Dent was dialectal variant of the Middle English dunt, dent, dente & dint (a blow; strike; dent), from the Old English dynt (blow, strike, the mark or noise of a blow), from the Proto-Germanic duntiz (a blow) and akin to the Old Norse dyntr (dint).  Indent, indenture & indenting are nouns & verbs, indenter, indention, indentation & indentor are nouns, indented is a verb & adjective and indentable is an adjective; the noun plural is indents.

Scriptum super libros sententiarum Petri Lombardi, Liber I (Commentary on the Book I of the Sentences of Peter Lombard) by Italian Dominican friar, philosopher & theologian Saint Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274), transcribed in Latin as a decorated manuscript on paper by an unknown scribe in central Italy in the mid-late fifteenth century.  Still sometimes used in newspaper and magazine publishing, the "Drop Cap" is a disproportionately large letter which appears as the first in a sentence and the practice created the most obvious need for an indent.  Otherwise the indent appeared as a blank space to indicate the start of a new paragraph, a technique some still use.

The original significance of “indented documents” was they were an analogue version of modern digital cryptography such as the need for both public and private “keys” to make a file accessible.  The noun indenture was a late fourteenth century form meaning (written formal contract for services (between master and apprentice, etc), a deed with mutual covenants), from the Anglo-French endenture, from the Old French endenteure (indentation), from endenter (to notch or dent).  The classic indented document was a contact or agreement of some kind created in two (or more) parts on a single sheet of parchment which was then cut in an irregular zigzag (ie an “indented” line) with each party retaining their piece.  Each part of the parchment could be authenticated by matching its jagged edge with that of another part.  The forms indented & indenting were known by the late fourteenth century while the additional of indent to the jargon of mechanical printing to describe “the insertion of a blank space to force text inward” dates from the 1670 although the idea of an indent being “a cut or notch in a margin” was in use in the 1590s, derived from the verb.  There is also evidence indent was used in the late 1400s the sense of “a written agreement” (ie the documents cut from the single sheet of parchment) as a scribe’s short form of the formal term endenture."  That practice arose because ink and parchment were both expensive and over many pages, money would be saved if the number of letters used was reduced and the same tactic lasted well into the twentieth century because those sending telegrams were charged by the letter.  Unfortunately, different scribes sometimes used different abbreviations which can make the reading of medieval texts a challenge.

Prelude, dent & aftermath: Lindsay Lohan out driving (left), the big dent (centre) and after being fixed (right).

In October 2005, Lindsay Lohan went for a drive in her Mercedes-Benz SL 65 AMG roadster.  It didn’t end well.  Based on the R230 (2001-2011) platform, the SL 65 AMG was produced between 2004-2012, all versions rated in excess of 600 horsepower, something perhaps not a wise choice for someone with no background handling such machinery though it could have been worse, the factory building 400 (175 for the US market, 225 for the RoW (rest of the world)) of the even more powerful SL 65 Black Series, the third occasion an SL was offered without a soft-top and the second time one had been configured with a permanent fixed-roof (a production number of 350 is sometimes quoted but those maintaining registers insist it was 400).  However, by 2007, all dents had been repaired and the car (California registration 5LZF057), detailed & simonized, was being offered for sale in Texas, the mileage stated as 6207.  Bidding was said to be “healthy” so all's well that ends well.

The noun indentation was first used in 1728 do describe “a cut, notch or incision at the margin or edge of something” and after 1847 the word was used to describe “a dent or impression; a small hollow or depression, a slight pit” which was used in everything from metal-working & carpentry to pastry chefs making pies.  The significance was that usually an indentation was deliberate while a dent was the consequence of an accident.  The now rare indention was a noun dating from 1763 and was an irregular formation from indent and again gained its utility by distinguishing between marginal notches and dents but, in the way of such things, both seem often to have been used interchangeably. The familiar noun dent (a blow; strike; dent) in the sense of “an indentation, a hollow mark made by a blow or pressure" was known by the 1560 and although there’s no documentary evidence, most etymologists assume it was coined under the influence of indent.

Wiggle

 Wiggle (pronounced wig-uhl)

(1) To move or go with short, quick, irregular movements from side to side.

(2) To cause to wiggle; move quickly and irregularly from side to side.

(3) A wiggling movement or course.

(4) A wiggly line.

(5) In (mostly northern) US cooking, a form of tuna casserole (usually made with tinned peas or carrots and used also to describe describe creamed tuna on toast; known as a bechamel sauce, especially in the New England states.

1175–1225: From the Middle English wiglen; akin to the Old English wegan (to move), wēg (motion) & wicga (insect) and probably related to the Norwegian vigla (to totter), frequentative of vigga (to rock oneself).  The Dutch and Middle Low German was wiggelen, though to be from the Middle Dutch wigelen (to wiggle) and perhaps the Middle Low German wigelen, frequentative of wiegen (to rock) from wiege (cradle).  The most common idiomatic form is “get a wiggle on”, an informal, usually friendly, suggestion to hurry.  Synonyms include twist, squirm, jerk, wag, writhe, jiggle, wave, wriggle, shimmy, zigzag, waggle, twitch & worm and forms are created as required including the intriguing outwiggled & outwiggling.  Wiggle is a noun & verb, wiggler is a noun, wiggly is an adjective and wiggled & wiggling are verbs; the noun plural is wiggles.  

Donald Trump meets the Wiggles.

Formed in Australia in 1991 as a television musical quartet, The Wiggles were noted for their distinctive and brightly colored skivvies (red, yellow, blue and purple).  Although there were personnel changes (which sometimes attracted controversy), during its first two decades, the membership was exclusively male but in 2012, Emma Watkins (b 1989), previously performing anonymously as Dorothy the Dinosaur, became the Yellow Wiggle and the group dynamics changed, such was her popularity with the audience that almost instantly she dominated, the male members now barely noticed except as her performing backdrop.  This had the advantage of rendering the red, blue and purple wiggles essentially commodities and thus easily replaced without adverse audience reaction but did seem to create a dependence on her which some suggested might might threaten the longer-term survival of the brand.  Those concerns will soon be tested by a raft of changes in the wake of the Yellow Wiggle's announcement in October 2021 she was passing on the skivvy, retiring from the group to pursue a Ph.D in sign language and dance.  For students of branding and marketing that would have been interesting enough but it coincided with the Wiggles deciding to revamp the line-up to encompass a more ethnically diverse range of performers, presumably to entice interest from the parents of more ethnically diverse families, the theory being they too have disposable income to spend on concerts and merchandize.  For all sorts of reasons, the outcome will be interesting.

In the jargon of fashion, a “wiggle dress” is a garment with a hem is narrower than the hips, the cut inducing the wearer to walk in short strides with the legs close together, the sway producing a wiggle of the hips.  A “wiggle” is subtly different from a “wobble” or a “jiggle” as Lindsay Lohan illustrates.