Faunching at the Bit

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Whitney from Dallas.

Hi, Whitney. Welcome to the show.

Hello, Whitney.

Thank you. Hi, Martha. Hi, Grant.

Hello. What can we do for you?

Well, I hope you can clear up a family debate for me.

We will try.

My mom’s family is hysterical when they get together, and especially when they’re playing cards.

So this was a few years ago. It was my grandmother, her three sisters, some of their children, including my mom, me and my two sisters.

So we were playing a card game, and someone used the phrase chomping at the bit.

So I think it was in the context of in this game you buy cards, and you have to wait if someone else wants to buy the card ahead of you. You have to wait on them.

So that started to debate whether or not it’s chomping at the bit or faunching at the bit, because there were certain family members who had never heard of chomping at the bit, and that was a ridiculous phrase. It was faunching at the bit.

So what I found interesting was that a room full of family members could all have been using different versions of this phrase, which I kind of think of as a colloquialism.

And in fact, there was even another word. I can’t remember. Someone else had another version instead of chomping or faunching.

So my question was, which was the original? And to me, I’ve always thought chomping at the bit made sense. I can’t even think of what faunching at the bit, how a horse would faunch at the bit.

Yeah, and the idea is that we’re talking about somebody who’s really, really eager to do something, like a horse that has a bridle and a bit in his mouth, and he really wants to do something, so he’s like chomping at it, chomping at that metal bit in his mouth.

And yeah, the older version of this, the other one that maybe you were thinking of, is champing at the bit.

Oh, champing, okay.

Yeah, champing, which is considerably older than chomping, but we don’t hear it unless it’s in that phrase now. I mean, we hear about chomping if you’re chomping down on something.

But the one that’s far more common is chomping at the bit.

Well, good, because that’s the one I use. So I think it’s more appropriate. So you win.

You sound like a very competitive card player.

But we have to talk about faunch for a minute, don’t we?

Yeah, how are you spelling faunch?

F-A-U-N-C-H.

F as in Frank.

F as in Frank.

And was there any dividing line between these groups of people? Was there anything in common about the people who said faunching at the bit?

The two that were adamant about faunching were one of my grandmother’s sisters and then her daughter. But they all came from a similar area in Oklahoma.

They grew up so close together that I couldn’t understand why one would have heard one phrase and another a different phrase.

Interesting.

There is a slight difference in faunching and champing at the bit or chomping at the bit. And faunching tends to imply a little more anger and aggression.

Yeah, irritation.

Irritation.

And not just impatience, but like just frustration. And it always pops up over the last hundred plus years in context related to cattle drives and cowboys and farmers.

In any place, there are animals or animals that need to be driven by a horse.

Oh, okay.

So it’d be interesting to know if they meant something different. There’s a slight difference there.

And faunch is often used to apply to people as well. It’s not just for horses, though. And that’s another difference.

You can be faunchy, even.

Yeah, or faunching.

Yeah, you can be faunching.

Why are you faunching?

We’ll get there in a minute.

Okay, so it has a little bit more of an angry tone.

Yes, yes.

Okay.

A very strong western and southern word, far western, or southwestern word, almost unknown in the northeast and the southeast.

Yeah, when you said Oklahoma, I had bells going off in my head.

So who won the game?

Probably my grandmother. I don’t remember who won the game. Probably the one who was chomping at the bit.

Age goes with skill.

Well, thank you for clearing it up.

Sure thing, Whitney.

Thanks for calling, Whitney. Interesting history.

Take care now.

Thank you.

Bye-bye.

Take care.

Bye-bye.

Grant, do you know how most horses like to eat?

Standing up.

Yes, and without a bit in their mouths.

We’d love to hear your family stories about language, so call us 877-929-9673, or you can always send them an email to words@waywordradio.org.