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Neither Martha nor Grant even mentioned that the phase she uses, “chomping at the bit”, actually is originally (and more more properly) “champing at the bit”. These kinds of misheard cliches annoy me. I get particular flustered when someone quite confidently speaks of “honing in on” something instead of the sensibly correct “homing in on” something. It's a losing battle, I know, but can't some words and phrases retain their meaning just because they are right and sensible?
Welcome to the forum, Jay.
There are a number of words which are commonly pronounced "improperly". A lot of people think victuals is pronounced vic-tyu-ullz, but Granny Clampett had it right in pronouncing it "vittles". Teat is the proper spelling of "tit", and harassment is properly pronounced "harr-ass-mint", not "Harris mint". But the language is democratic, and the majority eventually win. On this forum, we tend to look at the origins of words, so we fall on the descriptive rather than the prescriptive side of things.
American Heritage, my favorite everyday dictionary, says that champ, short for champion, is pronounced champ, but champ, meaning to munch, can either be pronounced champ or chomp. Copy editors generally ensure that nobody gets away with "chomping at the bit", but if you hear a book at Audible.com, invariably it's pronounced "chomping".
In "Origins of the Specious", author Patricia O'Connor points talks about authors who refrain from using double negatives - "We can't NOT go home for Thanksgiving!" - because they don't want to be thought illiterate by those less learned. I, too, get annoyed when I read of "rights of passage" when "rites of passage" would be more appropriate, and I used to feel my blood pressure go up 30 points reading my email, because of all the spam telling me they could help me "loose" weight.
It's a losing battle. I suspect most people at this point think teat is pronounced "teet". What cam I say? Majority rules. They're right. Just as chomping at the bit is the most common pronunciation of champing at the bit.
In the 1950s, the word was restaurateur. Since then, an n has snuck in. Restauranteur (with a non-silent n) is now considered a variant by American Heritage dictionary, but the Collins dictionary (a UK dictionary) flat out calls that a misspelling. Change is inevitable, unless you're dealing with vending machines. Miss Grundy (and people like the two of us) need to suck it up.
Martha Barnette
Grant Barrett
Grant Barrett
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