In United States enlisted and officer military training programs, trainers encourage excellence in performance and adherence to standards in a number of ways. One method trainers employ is the judicious distribution of merits and demerits for outstanding and less than outstanding performance. Trainees tend to see more demerits than merits, and have historically called these demerits "gigs". The etymology of the word in this context is a little unclear, though it may be related to the act of spearing a fish or a frog with a sharpened stick as defined by Webster, below.