Also 8 chiger, 9 chigger, jigga. [Corruption of CHIGOE.]
1. = CHIGOE.
1756, 1810, 1830, 1868. [see CHIGOE].
1781. Smeathman, in Phil. Trans., LXXI. 170. I know nothing similar, except in the pulex penetrans of Linnæus, the jigger of the West Indies.
1826. Kirby & Sp., Entomol. (1856), IV. 53. I am speaking of the celebrated Chigoe or Jiggers, called also Nigua, Tungua, and Pique.
1897. Mary Kingsley, W. Africa, 205. A touch of fever on him and jiggers in his feet.
1899. Capt. N. Malcolm, in Blackw. Mag., Nov., 635/1. Several sepoys were suffering from that African pest the ‘jigger.’
2. Applied in U.S. to various harvest-ticks, such as Leptus americanus and L. irritans, which fasten on the human skin and cause great irritation.
