Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
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Chris -- 2018-04-11
I could have sworn I heard someone on TV say “kibbling” when they clearly meant “quibbling”, so I did some googling.
Let’s not kibble over a percentage point or two.
blog
I have a colleague like that… If he’s not kibbling over the tooltip text on a button, he is telling you how you should study for your next exam.
software discussion
I suspect I and many others will go to our graves not being comfortable mebbling and gibbling over our bytes, though we’ll probably spend a lot of time kibbling over the issue…
geek talk
I’m kibbling over bits here, but he doesn’t really express his point of view, he merely asks a question…...
discussion
As far as an eggcornish meaning connection goes, would it be too much to presume some connection, however unconscious, with quibbling/kibbling as a way of chewing on something, verbally ruminating, worrying something in the sense that a dog worries a bone?
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BTW, I’m thinking that the process by which “quibble” becomes “kibble” may be the same process by which “quirky” becomes “corky”, which we have also seen in these pages. I’m trying to think of other “qu-” words that might be eggcorned—or at least malapropped—into “c-” or “k-” words…
Last edited by Dixon Wragg (2016-02-09 05:46:47)
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If quibble is a small quib (petty objection), then kibble would be a small kib (or chip, originally, maybe), thus equally opaque. The fourth hit shows that it is used to refer to details. I would assign its use to pettyness or insignificance, then. I like it. It reminds me of timbits of information.
The third hit looks intentional, btw.
Let me take the opportunity to slide in an off-topic timbit of local slang that arose in Western Canada when I was a lad, one that I not only still use, but, at the moment, embody: gibbled.
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burred wrote:
The third hit looks intentional, btw.
Clearly the perp was intentionally playing with the sounds of the words, but it doesn’t seem to me that that sort of play has any bearing on the issue of whether it’s an eggcorn there.
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gibbling, mebbling, and kibbling refer to giga-, mega-, and kilobytes in the original message, so kibbling was a play on words. But far be it from me to quibble.
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I’m trying to think of other “qu-†words that might be eggcorned—or at least malapropped—into “c-†or “k-†words
We have seen:
countify << quantify
coagmire<< quagmire
in close corridors << in close quarters
Hatching new language, one eggcorn at a time.
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Let me take the opportunity to slide in an off-topic timbit of local slang that arose in Western Canada when I was a lad, one that I not only still use, but, at the moment, embody: gibbled.
The article overlooks an obvious possibility. Why wouldn’t “gibbled” be a verb variation on the noun “gimbal.” A wonky ankle is one where the joint acts like a gimbal. (The loss of the “m” could be put down to the fact that people in Saskatchewan catch a lot of colds!)
Hatching new language, one eggcorn at a time.
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Return trip provided by quarter ballet.
I could have used a gimbal had one been handy when I slipped on the ice last week and gibbled my wrist. I use it as a mix of crippled, mangled, gibbering, and giblets, although the g is hard.
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