Etymologically
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rib

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Pronunciation

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

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