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Etymology and origin of the English word jib

Pronunciation

jib1 triangular sail

Confidence
Unknown
First attested
1661 inventory of the ketch Swallow

Etymology

The word for the sail is of unknown origin,[2][3][4][5][6][7] and the OED notes that it has existed only in English.[2] The OED and Barnhart suggest it may be an abbreviation of gibbet, from the sail's hanging from the masthead.[2][8][9] The OED finds a connection with the verb jib plausible too, though the verb is not recorded so early;[2] Etymonline allows that derivation and Partridge accepts it,[9][10] and Weekley explains it by the sail filling from side to side with the wind.[11] The nautical verb is itself obscure.[2][6][5] It has the sense of Danish gibbe, Swedish gippa (dialectal) and Dutch gijpen, probably from a Low German original, but the OED, Hoad and Chambers find the sound /dʒ/ against a direct connection, as with gybe.[2][5][12] Etymonline nevertheless takes the verb, with jibe, from gijben or gijpen, to turn suddenly, apparently related to gijk (“boom, spar”).[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

A triangular staysail: 1661, spelled gibb, in an inventory of the ketch Swallow.[2][8][9][3]

Semantic evolution

The verb, to pull a sail or yard round from one side of the ship to the other, is recorded from before 1687, and of the sail itself swinging round from 1719, in Defoe;[2] from 1891 it was used of other things that swing round.[2] The jib-boom, the spar run out beyond the bowsprit to carry the sail, is named from 1748.[2][9] The phrase the cut of one's jib, one's appearance, is from 1823 in Scott,[2] or 1821 in Etymonline, which explains it as a sailor's judgement of a strange vessel by the state of its jibs;[9] Weekley likewise calls it a sailor's impression of a strange sail at sea.[11] In dialect the word also meant the lower lip, as in to hang the jib, from before 1825, and the mouth, face or nose;[2][6] the English Dialect Dictionary records the under-lip sense from the Lake District and Yorkshire to Devon.[13] Brewer took the lip sense for a sailor's expression, the under-lip showing a person's temper.[14]

Timeline

  • 1661 – a triangular staysail, spelled gibb.[2][8][3]
  • before 1687 – verb, to pull a sail or yard round from one side of a ship to the other.[2] Barnhart dates it 1691.[8]
  • 1719 – of a sail, to swing round to the other side.[2]
  • 1823 – the cut of one's jib, one's appearance.[2] Etymonline dates it 1821.[9]
  • before 1825 – in dialect, the lower lip; also the mouth or face.[2]
  • 1891 – of other things, to swing round.[2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (nautical) A triangular sail set on a stay forward of the foremast, running to the bowsprit or jib boom.[3][15][16][2]
  2. the cut of someone's jib: a person's look, manner or bearing.[15][2]
  3. (dialect) The lower lip or jaw; also the mouth or face.[3][2][15]

Verb

  1. (nautical) To swing a sail or yard from one side of a ship to the other, as in tacking; to gybe.[3][2][6]
  2. Of a sail, yard or boom, to shift across to the other side; of other things, to swing round.[3][2]

Word family

  • flying jib
  • genoa jib
  • inner jib
  • jib boom

jib2 arm of a crane

Confidence
Probable
Formation
Clipping
First attested
1765 J. Ferguson in Philosophical Transactions
Ultimate origin
Old French gibe

Etymology

The word for the arm of a crane is apparently a shortened form, from English gibbet,[2][6][17][18][10] probably with alteration, according to Merriam-Webster;[3][19] Hoad and the American Heritage Dictionary call it of unknown origin.[5][20] The OED refers it to a later sense of the gallows word, an upright post with a projecting arm from which the bodies of executed criminals were hung in chains.[2][9] That word is from Old French gibet (“gallows”), in early use a staff or cudgel, a diminutive of gibe (“staff, club”),[2][9] which Etymonline takes perhaps from Frankish *gibb (“forked stick”).[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The projecting arm of a crane: 1765, in a paper by J. Ferguson in the Philosophical Transactions for 1764;[2] the 1989 edition of the OED and Merriam-Webster give 1764.[21][3][19]

Semantic evolution

The word was soon applied to the boom of a derrick as well;[2][3] compounds such as jib-crane, a crane fitted with a jib, date from 1792.[21]

Timeline

  • 1765 – the projecting arm of a crane; also the boom of a derrick.[2]
  • 1792 – compounds such as jib-crane.[21]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The projecting arm of a crane.[3][16][2]
  2. The boom of a derrick.[3][16][2]

jib3 to balk

Confidence
Unknown
First attested
1811 Jane Austen, letter

Etymology

The verb meaning to balk is of uncertain origin.[2][5][20][6] The OED calls it a recent word, absent from Todd (1818), Webster (1828) and Craig (1847).[2] Forby, before 1825, thought it transferred from the jibbing of a sail, and so identical with the nautical verb, a view the OED finds very doubtful[2] but Merriam-Webster takes as probable and Partridge and Weekley accept.[3][19][10][11] It resembles Old French giber (“to kick”), said of horses, whence regiber, modern French regimber, and early Middle English regibben in the “Ancrene Riwle”, but the OED and Hoad see no possible historical connection,[2][5] and Weekley finds the English word too late for it;[11] the Concise Oxford and the Oxford Dictionary of English think it perhaps related to the French verb.[22][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of a horse, to stop and refuse to go on: 1811, in a letter of Jane Austen of 25 April,[2][3] spelled gib.[23]

Semantic evolution

The figurative use, to stop short, refuse to go on or back out, followed in 1812;[2] from 1882 the verb also meant to shy at something.[2] A jib was a horse that jibs from 1843, and a standstill from 1893;[2] jibber, a horse that jibs, is recorded from 1847, and of a person from 1936.[2] In Warwickshire to jib at the collar meant to shirk work, and in London a jib was a jibbing horse, such as the young cab horses that Mayhew (1851) says were sold to the slaughterers as useless.[13]

Timeline

  • 1811 – of a horse, to stop and refuse to go on, or to move restively backwards or sideways.[2][3]
  • 1812 – figuratively, to stop short; to refuse to go on; to back out.[2]
  • 1843 – noun, a horse that jibs.[2]
  • 1882 – to shy at something.[2]
  • 1893 – noun, a standstill.[2]

Meanings

Verb

  1. Of a horse or other animal in harness, to stop short and refuse to go on, or to move restively backwards or sideways.[3][16][2]
  2. Of a person, to balk or hold back; to show reluctance or refuse to act: The committee jibbed at the cost of the new roof.[3][16][2][19]

Noun

  1. A horse that jibs; a jibber.[2][6][3]

Word family

  • jibber
  • gibbet
  • gybe
  • jibe

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  4. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  5. ^ a b c d e f Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b c d e f g Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  8. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  10. ^ a b c Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
  11. ^ a b c d Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  12. ^ The Chambers Dictionary (2014), 13th ed., Edinburgh: Chambers
  13. ^ 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)
  14. ^ Brewer, E. Cobham (1898), Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, new ed., London: Cassell
  15. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  16. ^ a b c d e The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
  17. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  18. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  19. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  20. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
  21. ^ a b c Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  22. ^ Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  23. ^ Onions, C. T., ed. (1966), The Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Jib.” Etymologically, 13 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/en/jib. Accessed 13 Nov. 2026.

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