Champing at the bit, or chomping at the bit?

Factual Questions
1

I was taught that the correct expression was “champing at the bit.” However, I constantly hear and read “chomping at the bit.”

Searching the Web, I find thousands of sites using each expression.

Searching the SDMB archives, I get no reference to either expression. (Two unrelated uses of “chomping” in a Rhino thread and a Baby Corn thread).

Merriam-Webster.com gives me this:

Main Entry: 1champ
Pronunciation: 'champ, 'chämp, 'chomp
Function: verb
Etymology: perhaps imitative
Date: 14th century
transitive senses
1 : CHOMP
2 : MASH, TRAMPLE
intransitive senses
1 : to make biting or gnashing movements
2 : to show impatience of delay or restraint – **usually used in the phrase champing at the bit <he was champing at the bit to begin> **

Webster does not give that same example (bolding mine) when I look up “chomp.”

So do I continue my crusade to correct everyone that says “chomping at the bit,” or is each usage the same for all intensive purposes? :stuck_out_tongue:

2

Champ is probably the original word, while chomp seems more of an Americanism. The change in vowel quality suggests a heavier, grosser action. Similar to stamp (the original word, as in “stamp one’s foot”) and the form stomp (more usual nowadays).

3

P.S. Grammarian, heal thyself.

Please, everyone, for once and for all cease and desist with this misbegotten phrase!!! Have you given any thought to what “all intensive purposes” might actually mean? Does it make any sense?

It’s supposed to be all intents and purposes. A bit redundant, since “intent” and “purpose” are very nearly synonyms. Characteristic of legalese, I’m afraid. Like “cease and desist.”

4

Jomo, I think he was kidding.

Regarding champ vs chomp, it’s probably a case of people substituting a familiar word for an unfamiliar one.

5

A horse when bridled and anxious to move on will play with its bit, rolling it on its tongue and working up a quantity of foamy saliva. Some horsemen regard this as a good trait indicating that the animal is alert and looking forward to the joys of pulling a plow or hauling a fat ass’d two-hundred plus pound man over hill and across dale for five or six hours. I regard it as a sign that the horse isn’t any too bright. At any rate some encourage the behavior by using a copper bit or one that is copper clad, called a sweet mouth bit. The behavior is called, variously, champing at the bit, chomping at the bit and sometimes faunching at the bit. I suspect that any use is correct although “spell check” has never heard of faunching.

6

Thanks for the responses. I guess both are correct.

(Jomo Mojo, I was kidding, hence the :p. I hate “all intensive purposes”).