Wednesday, October 11, 2017

Wednesday Words ~ jibe and jib

The word "jibe" (jibed; jibing) is an intransitive verb that means:
  1.  to be in accord 
  2.  agree — which is usually used with the word "with."
Example:  a story that doesn't jibe with the facts.  According to Merriam-Webster, the first known usage is from 1813.  A recent example from the web from the AP in Washington:  "President Donald Trump’s new communications aide is deleting old tweets that didn’t jibe with his boss’ views."

I looked it up after using it in a private message to a friend on Facebook.
"The woman gave me directions which jibed with the google map."
When I looked up "jibe," I also discovered it's an alternate spelling for "jib," one of the sails on a sailboat.  In 1968, we bought a sailboat and named it Blue Streak, because we talked a "blue streak" before deciding to buy it and because it was a 19-foot Lightning class sailboat.  (I found this labeled photo at Brit Word of the Day.)

Here's the difference in pronunciation:  "jib" rhymes with "rib," and "jibe" rhymes with "tribe."  Since I use both words, I'll stick with the two different spellings.

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