Sigogglin is a U.S. Appalachian colloquialism, often used by carpenters or builders, that is rarely heard outside the region and may be dying out. A colloquialism is a word or phrase that has arisen from English but is not considered formal or grammatical. Colloquial words or phrases are used very frequently in spoken English.
Sigogglin Meaning: Crooked, skewed, not straight, off-angle, slanted, or not built poorly or not correctly.
Origin: Sigogglin may be a portmanteau of “sight” and “goggling” (referring to one’s eyes moving irregularly or randomly).
Sentence Examples
“The walls in this house are all sigogglin like they were built by a blind person.”
“That picture is all sigogglin again. I just straightened it yesterday.”
“The road to his house sure is sigogglin.”
“You look a little sigogglin. You sure you’re ok?”
“No use fixing this fence as sigogglin as it is. I’m going to put up a new one.”
“You’ll have to lift up on the fence to open it. It’s been hanging sigogglin like that for years.”
In the distant past, sigogglin was used only for things that leaned to the right or were tilted at a right angle, while antisigogglin was used for those tilted to the left.