rib

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English ribbe, also rib,^[2][3][4] inherited from Old English ribb,^{[5][6][2][7][8]} from Proto-Germanic *ribją,^[1] which Kroonen reconstructs as *rebja-.^[9][10] It is cognate with Old Frisian ribb, Dutch rib, Old Saxon ribbi, Old High German rippi (modern Rippe) and Old Norse rif,^{[5][6][9][11]} which is the source of reef.^[11] Outside Germanic it is probably related to the Old Church Slavonic and Russian word for rib,^[5][10][9] and perhaps to Ancient Greek ἐρέφω (eréphō, “to roof over”) and to the second element of hirni-reba (“skull”),^[5][9][3] from Proto-Indo-European *h₁rebʰ- (“to roof, cover”).^[9][2] Etymonline notes Boutkan's doubt about this root, since the sense "rib" is found only in Germanic and Slavic.^[6] The verb, to furnish with ribs, is formed from the noun in English.^[5][2][12]

Earliest recorded meaning

Each of the curved bones joined in pairs to the spine and enclosing the chest: the OED's first record is in the early Old English Corpus Glossary,^[5] before 800 in Barnhart.^[2] Old English used it to gloss Latin costa, and for the rib from which Eve was made in Genesis.^[7]

Semantic evolution

The bone gave its name to a rib of meat as food, already in Old English;^[5] Etymonline dates the cookery sense "piece of meat containing ribs" to the early 15th century.^[6] From 1378 the curved timbers of a ship's frame were its ribs,^[5][2] and many other supporting struts, ridges and veins later followed.^[10][13] In allusion to Eve's creation from Adam's rib, the word meant a wife, or a woman, from the late 16th century,^[5][10][14] later as slang.^[5][15] The verb, to furnish or strengthen with ribs, appears before 1547 in the Earl of Surrey's translation of Virgil,^[5][2][16] and also meant to mark with ridges (1548), to plough leaving spaces between furrows (1735) and, in knitting, to work in rib stitch (1837).^[5][6] From 1710 to rib someone was to beat them about the ribs;^[5][2] since the early 17th century the ribs had also been the part of the body said to suffer from laughter.^[5] The slang sense "to tease, make fun of" is first recorded in 1912,^[5][16] although Etymonline and Barnhart have it from 1930; it was chiefly American.^[6][2][5] The dictionaries derive it from poking or tickling someone in the ribs to make them laugh,^[16][14][6] or from the earlier sense of beating someone on the ribs.^[2] The noun rib, a joke or act of teasing, followed in 1929,^[5][16][6] and Collins takes the "tease" verb as a clipping of rib-tickle.^[13] American criminals' slang also had rib for urging someone to do something (1899) and for framing a person (1926).^[5] A medieval flat iron tool for cleaning flax was also called a rib (before 1325), perhaps the same word.^[5][6]

Timeline

• before 800 – a rib, the bone, in the Corpus Glossary.^[5][2]
• Old English – a rib of meat as food.^[5]
• 1378 – a curved timber of a ship's frame.^[5][2]
• before 1547 – verb, to provide or strengthen with ribs.^[5][2][16]
• 1548 – verb, to mark with ridges.^[5]
• 1580s – a wife, a woman, alluding to Genesis.^[6][10][5]
• 1710 – verb, to beat about the ribs.^[5]
• 1837 – verb, to knit in rib stitch.^[5]
• 1912 – verb, slang, to tease or make fun of.^[5][16]
• 1929 – noun, a joke or act of teasing.^[5][16]

Meanings

Noun

1. Any of the paired curved bones attached to the spine that form the wall of the chest in humans and other vertebrates.^[13][16][5]
2. A cut of meat that includes one or more ribs: a rack of pork ribs.^[13][16][5]
3. A part like a rib in form or use, especially a structural or supporting member.^[13][5]
4. Any of the curved timbers or metal members forming the frame of a ship's hull.^[5][2]
5. A raised strip or ridge, as in knitting or ribbed fabric.^[13][5]
6. (slang, humorous) A wife; a woman.^[5][14][15]
7. (chiefly US, informal) A joke or act of teasing; also a parody.^[16][5][14]

Verb

1. To provide, strengthen or enclose with ribs.^[16][5][12]
2. To mark with ridges, or to knit in rib stitch by alternating knit and purl stitches.^[16][5]
3. (informal) To tease or make fun of: They ribbed him about his new haircut.^[16][13][5]

Word family

• ribber
• ribless
• riblike
• midrib
• ribby
• riblet

Related words

• reef
• ribbing
• ribwort

Usage notes

Separate words spelled rib are the Irish English word for a single hair, borrowed from Irish ribe,^[5][16] the acronym RIB, a rigid inflatable boat (1982),^[5][17] and an old name for ribwort plantain, perhaps from the prominent ribs of its leaves.^[5]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
4. ^ Stratmann, Francis Henry (1891), A Middle-English Dictionary, revised by Henry Bradley, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ 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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
8. ^ Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
9. ^ a b c d e Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
10. ^ a b c d e Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
12. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ a b c d e f g Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
14. ^ a b c d Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
15. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
16. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
17. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press