gibe

Etymology

Its origin is uncertain.^[2][3][4][5] It is perhaps borrowed from Middle French giber (“to handle roughly, shake”),^[6][7][2] a verb the American Heritage Dictionary calls obsolete French and traces to Old French.^[8] Hoad and the Shorter Oxford take it from the Old French verb, which meant to handle roughly and in modern French dialect to kick;^[4][5] the Shorter Oxford adds that it is represented in modern French by regimber (“to buck, rear”), and both compare the verb jib.^[5][4] Dictionary.com derives the French verb from gibe (“staff, billhook”).^[7] Barnhart suggests that it was borrowed in the sense "to use horseplay", or that it is an alteration of gaber (“to mock”),^[2] and Etymonline mentions the same two possibilities.^[3] Skeat took it as imitative and compared Dutch gijbelen (“to sneer”) and Norwegian geipa (“to make grimaces”);^[9] Partridge also points to the Dutch verb, which he sees as the frequentative of an unrecorded verb,^[10] and Weekley compares Low German gibeln and the German dialect verb geifelen (“to laugh mockingly”).^[11] The noun is from the verb.^{[3][2][5][12]}

Earliest recorded meaning

To speak sneeringly, to jeer or scoff: 1567.^[13][6] Barnhart finds the verb implied in 1563 in the noun giber, one who gibes,^[2] and Etymonline dates it to the 1560s.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The transitive use, to address someone with taunts, followed in 1582,^[13] and the noun, a scoffing or sneering remark, in 1573.^[13][2][3] The 1989 edition of the OED also records a dialect sense, to scold.^[13] Johnson (1755) defined the noun as a sneer or taunt and quoted Shakespeare's Othello for "the fleers, the gibes, and notable scorns", and Dryden and Swift after it.^[12] The verb is usually followed by at.^[6][5]

Timeline

• 1567 – to speak sneeringly, to jeer or scoff.^[13][6]
• 1573 – noun, a taunt or sneer.^[13][2]
• 1582 – transitive, to taunt or flout someone.^[13][5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To make taunting or sarcastic remarks; to jeer or scoff, usually followed by at: The rival fans gibed at the referee all afternoon.^[6][14][5]
2. To mock or taunt someone with scornful words.^[6][14][5]

Noun

1. A taunting, sarcastic or scornful remark: She ignored his gibes about her old car.^[6][14][5]

Word family

• giber
• gibingly

Related words

• jibe
• gybe
• jib
• gibbet

Usage notes

Both the verb and the noun are also spelled jibe,^[14][6][5] and Collins also lists gibe as a variant spelling of the nautical gybe.^[14] The American verb jibe, to agree or fit, was formerly written gibe as well;^[13][15] Wright recorded it in Norfolk,^[15] and the OED dates it from 1813 and calls its origin obscure, perhaps connected with chime.^[16] An obsolete noun gibe, a gibbet, shortened from gibbet, is recorded once, in 1590.^[16]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
3. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
9. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
11. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
12. ^ 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.
13. ^ a b c d e f g h Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
14. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
15. ^ a b 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)
16. ^ a b Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press