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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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In the language of young people, one may assert a claim to ownership or entitlement by claiming to have "dibs on" the object in question. From whence cometh this expression? And why are dibs always "on" something? And don't give me any nonsense about "dibstones" unless you know what they were, how they were used and what they have to do with "dibsing" something.
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Joined: Mar 2003
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I surely don't know the answer, but I have dibs on the first reply to your thread....... 
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Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 1,624
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 1,624 |
I'm not sure about this, but I fancied that it was a lift from Cockney rhyming slang for fingers - dabblers -> dibblers -> dibs.
Not standing by it, though.
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Joined: Dec 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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dibs on the first reply
Just a usage question: Can you claim dibs on something while simultaneously actually taking that on which you claim dibs? I've never heard it used as anything other than making a claim before actually executing that claim.
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Joined: Dec 2000
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old hand
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old hand
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 1,055 |
It's about time we had a nitpickers thread again, innit Faldage? I call shotgun on the first reply though! Anyway, Quinion has a pretty thorough discussion on 'dibs': http://www.quinion.com/words/qa/qa-dib1.htm
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Joined: Dec 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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I wan't pickin no nit. I was just askin, loike.
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Joined: Jan 2001
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old hand
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old hand
Joined: Jan 2001
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I haven't heard "dibs" since early 1920s.Dear Dr. Bill, we use it all the time!  ("We" meaning, say, people born after 1970...)
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Joined: Sep 2001
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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I've heard people (mostly children) calling dibs on things since I was a little girl back in the early 1950s.
I just asked a group of 8-year-olds, "What does it mean when you Call dibs on something?"
One child answered, "It means you get to have it because you called dibs before anybody else."
Funny. I need to ask the kids in my next class--after such an answer--"Well, what exactly do you think 'dibs' means?"
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Joined: Dec 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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I would think that, children's language being normally very conservative in such matters and largely ignored by adults, that there could easily be a provenance af much greater age than the first recorded use. That it doesn't seem to match British usage would seem to argue against an origin in a British children's game, however. Do we have any citations from those of us from outside of North America?
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