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Etymology and origin of the English word fib

English has two words spelled fib: the trivial lie, and an old slang verb meaning to beat, later used in boxing.[1][2]

Pronunciation

fib1 trivial lie

Confidence
Uncertain
Formation
Clipping
First attested
1611 Cotgrave
Ultimate origin
Latin fābula

Etymology

The word for a trivial lie is of uncertain origin.[2][4][5] It is perhaps from English a shortening of fible-fable, "nonsense",[2][6][7][8][4][5] recorded from 1581,[2][4] which is a reduplication of fable with a change of vowel.[2][9][10] Merriam-Webster Unabridged likewise takes it as perhaps a shortening and alteration of that word.[1] The latter is from Old French fable (“story, tale; lie, falsehood”), from Latin fābula (“story, tale”).[5] Weekley thought it might instead be a thinned form of fob, to cheat,[11] and Skeat linked it with fob and compared German foppen (“to banter”).[12] Johnson (1755) called it "a cant word among children".[13]

Earliest recorded meaning

A trivial or harmless lie: the first record is in Cotgrave's French–English dictionary (1611),[2][4] and Etymonline dates it to the 1610s.[5] The Shorter Oxford, the Oxford Dictionary of English and Dictionary.com put the noun in the mid 16th century.[9][8][14]

Semantic evolution

From the start the word meant a small or venial falsehood, and it was often used as a playful euphemism for "a lie".[2][5] The verb, to tell a fib, followed in the late 17th century,[2][5][4] and Etymonline notes that it is hardly ever transitive.[5] Johnson (1755) defined the noun as "a lye; a falsehood" and the verb as "to lie; to tell lyes", quoting Pope for both.[13] From 1861 the noun was also applied to a person who tells fibs.[2]

Timeline

  • 1611 – a trivial or venial lie.[2][4]
  • 1675 – verb, to tell a fib.[1] The OED's first quotation is from Dryden's Amphitryon (1690).[2][4]
  • 1861 – a person who tells fibs.[2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A small, harmless lie: She told a fib about losing her homework.[15][1][2]
  2. A person who tells fibs; a fibber.[2][9]

Verb

  1. To tell a fib.[15][1][2]

Word family

  • fibber
  • fibbery
  • fibster

fib2 to beat, punch

Confidence
Unknown
First attested
1612 Dekker, O per se O

Etymology

The word for beating or punching is of unknown origin.[2][1][9] Weekley called it thieves' slang,[11] and Green's Dictionary of Slang notes that it was a Lancashire dialect word;[16] the noun, a blow, is formed from the verb.[2][16]

Earliest recorded meaning

To beat, in thieves' cant: Dekker (1612) explains a phrase with fib as beating a man on the highway for the money in his purse.[16] Merriam-Webster Unabridged dates the verb to 1610,[1] and the OED's first record is the glossary in Head's English Rogue (1665).[2][16]

Semantic evolution

The verb stayed in the canting glossaries through the 17th and 18th centuries, always glossed "to beat".[16] In the prize ring of the early 19th century it became a technical term: Egan (1832) explains it as hammering an opponent repeatedly at close quarters without being hit back.[16] The noun, a blow or punch, appears in a song of 1790 and in the Sporting Magazine of 1814,[16][2] and in 1833 a fib was also a club or blackjack.[16] Wright recorded the verb in Lancashire dialect for hitting or boxing.[17] Merriam-Webster Unabridged labels it British.[1]

Timeline

  • 1612 – to beat, especially in order to rob; thieves' cant.[16] Merriam-Webster Unabridged dates the verb to 1610.[1]
  • 1790 – noun, a blow, a punch.[16] The OED's first record is from 1814.[2]
  • 1832 – in boxing, to hit an opponent repeatedly at close quarters.[16]
  • 1833 – a club, a blackjack.[16]

Meanings

Verb

  1. (British, slang) To beat or pummel, especially to strike with quick blows in boxing.[1][9][2]

Noun

  1. (slang) A blow or punch.[2][16]

Usage notes

In the phrase tib and fib, fib is a shortening of fibula.[2]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  5. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  6. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  7. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  9. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  10. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  11. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  12. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  13. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  14. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  15. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  16. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
  17. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Fib.” Etymologically, 7 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/en/fib. Accessed 7 Nov. 2026.

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