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Chris -- 2018-04-11

#1 2018-02-08 16:37:10

ladysun1969
Member
From: California
Registered: 2018-02-08
Posts: 6

"snip bit" for snippet

I received an email newsletter today with: “I’ve only overheard some snip bits here and there.”

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#2 2018-02-09 12:37:44

kem
Eggcornista
From: Victoria, BC
Registered: 2007-08-28
Posts: 2851

Re: "snip bit" for snippet

Good find, ladysun. We have “snip it” for “snippet” before ( here ) but “snipbit” is new. The noun “snipbit” seems fairly well established in certain vocabularies, to judge by the number of samples returned by Google searches.

In that earlier post, Ken calls the switch “unsurprising,” since both are built from the verb “snip.” True. The transformation of “it” to “bit,” however, is quite eggcornish. I can’t recall any other example on the Forum of the “it >> bit” move.


Hatching new language, one eggcorn at a time.

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#3 2018-02-09 15:43:54

ladysun1969
Member
From: California
Registered: 2018-02-08
Posts: 6

Re: "snip bit" for snippet

> The noun “snipbit” seems fairly well established in certain vocabularies, to judge by the number of samples returned by Google searches.

I admit to not doing a search for it. Was it one word or two? It was definitely two words in the newsletter I received.

> The transformation of “it” to “bit,” however, is quite eggcornish. I can’t recall any other example on the Forum of the “it >> bit” move.

It could just be a result of spelling out the elision. Or possibly the thought process of “snipping things into bits”.

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#4 2018-02-09 23:24:19

kem
Eggcornista
From: Victoria, BC
Registered: 2007-08-28
Posts: 2851

Re: "snip bit" for snippet

Was it one word or two?

I searched for the two-word version. The trick is to search for the noun by putting “a snip bit” and “the snip bit” in the Google search box (in quotes, of course).


Hatching new language, one eggcorn at a time.

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#5 2018-03-23 08:04:22

DavidTuggy
Eggcornista
From: Mexico
Registered: 2007-10-11
Posts: 2714
Website

Re: "snip bit" for snippet

Any connection to tidbit / titbit , do you suppose?

Last edited by DavidTuggy (2018-03-23 08:04:42)


*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .

(Possible Corollary: it is, and we are .)

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#6 2018-03-27 16:07:24

kem
Eggcornista
From: Victoria, BC
Registered: 2007-08-28
Posts: 2851

Re: "snip bit" for snippet

Any connection to tidbit / titbit , do you suppose?

“Tidbit” certainly could have paved the way for “snipbit.”


Hatching new language, one eggcorn at a time.

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#7 2020-10-30 16:06:39

David Bird
Eggcornista
From: The Hammer, Ontario
Registered: 2009-07-28
Posts: 1690

Re: "snip bit" for snippet

There is another, closer blend of tidbit and snippet that goes just wrong. An unfertile hybrid, I guess. It is surprisingly common, though, producing more than 50 raw hits.

Here is a snidbit of our duo (Love is Burnt) we are competing at Radix Nationals and Dance Awards coming soon!
dance

Amidst the chaos of politics and duplicitous leaders, here is a snidbit of classy and noble® pursuit.
documentary

A quick recording of my speaking voice and a snidbit of some character voices.
job seeker

Here’s a snid bit of the Whiz Khalifa show. Diddy was in attendance!
tweet

It occurs to me that a snid is no more obscure than a tid is to most of us, and the two make a nice pair once you work a bit of snipping in there. A tid, according to the Grammarphobia blog:

The Oxford English Dictionary suggests that the term may have originated as a combination of the adjective “tid” (playful, frolicsome, lively, etc.) and the noun “bit” (biting or a bite), though it says “the form tidbit is now chiefly North American.”
.
The OED, an etymological dictionary based on historical evidence, says the “titbit” spelling in the UK “probably” resulted from the “alteration of the first element after the second”—that is, the British turned “tid” into “tit” to make it rhyme with “bit.”
.
However, Oxford notes what it apparently considers a less likely explanation—that “titbit” was “perhaps” influenced by “tit” and “tittle” (terms for various small things).
Tidbit or titbit?

Okay, maybe that kind of elemental alteration is out there too.

In the ad, D’amelio does a snit-bit of TikTok dance moves while featuring how she eats the hummus.
portrait

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#8 2020-11-15 22:22:37

kem
Eggcornista
From: Victoria, BC
Registered: 2007-08-28
Posts: 2851

Re: "snip bit" for snippet

The OED says that “snid” is an old word for a sixpence. And the Urban Dictionary records contemporary British slanguage for “snid” as “the tiniest bit.” (fourth definition here).


Hatching new language, one eggcorn at a time.

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