# 'Dribs and drabs' origin search

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dribs-and-drabs-origin-search/116012>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [June 26, 2002, 10:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dribs-and-drabs-origin-search/116012 "2002-06-26T10:33:49Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Alex\_B](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Alex\_B](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alex_B)\
**Post date:** [June 26, 2002, 10:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dribs-and-drabs-origin-search/116012/1 "2002-06-26T10:33:49Z")

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As if the thread title didn’t explain: does anyone know the origin of the phrase ‘dribs and drabs’?

I’ve been searching Google on and off this morning but with no luck. Any ideas?  
Alex B

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**Author:** ![Thylacine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thylacine/32/1143_2.png) [@Thylacine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thylacine)\
**Post date:** [June 26, 2002, 11:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dribs-and-drabs-origin-search/116012/2 "2002-06-26T11:57:53Z")

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That one is a tad convoluted.

There was an archaic word _drib_ which meant to fall in drops or drip. That lead to _driblet_ meaning a small amount or a drop, humans being humans that may be how we got back to _dribs_ meaning a tiny amount (but nobody seems really sure, it may have been a more direct trip). People kept right on being people and _dribs_ had the same second word with different vowel treatment as _tit for tat_ or _flim-flam_ for the sound effect and there you have it, English at its finest 😉

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**Author:** ![\_shaolin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/_/9de053/32.png) [@\_shaolin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/_shaolin)\
**Post date:** [June 26, 2002, 12:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dribs-and-drabs-origin-search/116012/3 "2002-06-26T12:01:01Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> Why do things that trickle come in “dribs and drabs”?  
> Because it sounds good. Really.
> 
> Both drib and drab mean ‘a small quantity or amount’; the phrase dribs and drabs, which first appears in the nineteenth century, means ‘small and usually irregular amounts’. The earlier word is drib, which is first attested in the early eighteenth century. Drib is probably a back formation from driblet or dribble, both of which come from the verb drib ‘to fall or flow in small amounts; trickle’; drib is probably an onomatopoeic variant of drip.
> 
> The word drab is first recorded in the early nineteenth century. It is probably a gradational variant of drib, that is, one based on a change in the vowel.

From [here](http://www.randomhouse.com/wotd/index.pperl?date=19970528).