jibe » jive

Classification: English – nearly mainstream

Spotted in the wild:

  • Books lend more diversity of faith as well, letting spirituality seekers find a belief system that jives with how they live. (link)
  • Pace said roughly half of his students these days go on to teach, while most of the others end up in business. That jives with data collected by “The College Majors Handbook”… (link)
  • Concordia’s faculty and staff help you during your freshman year to clarify your goals, build great study habits, and create a degree plan that jives with your talents, skills, abilities, and interests. (link)

Washington State University’s Common Errors in English nicely summarizes this eggcorn:

“Gibe” is a now rare term meaning “to tease.” “Jibe” means “to agree,” but is usually used negatively, as in “the alibis of the two crooks didn’t jibe.” The latter word is often confused with “jive,” which derives from slang which originally meant to treat in a jazzy manner (“Jivin’ the Blues Away”) but also came to be associated with deception (“Don’t give me any of that jive”).

| link | entered by Thomas W Ping, 2005/07/05 |

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