The first jigsaw puzzles were geography lessons — a London mapmaker cut maps into pieces along country borders around 1760, decades before anyone called them "jigsaws."
A puzzle consisting of a picture cut into irregularly shaped interlocking pieces that must be reassembled; a mechanical saw with a fine blade used for cutting curves and intricate shapes.
A compound of jig (a lively dance, later meaning a device that holds something in position while work is done on it) + saw (cutting tool). The saw was named for its rapid up-and-down motion, resembling a jig (dance). The puzzle was named after the saw used to cut it. Key roots: sagu (Old English (from Proto-Germanic
The first jigsaw puzzles were not toys but educational tools. Around 1760, London mapmaker John Spilsbury glued maps onto wood and cut them along country borders, creating "dissected maps" that children could reassemble to learn geography. The name jigsaw puzzle only appeared around 1900 — earlier they were called "dissected puzzles." Ironically, most modern