Gib Adjusters and the English Language!

A really trivial one this - the sort of thing best pondered over a cup of tea.

I was recently thinking about gib strips / gib adjusters. In particular the correct pronunciation.

Is it gib as in "gibbon" or is it jib as in, well.... jib.

So reasonable assumption, Google will quickly settle that for me. Yeah right! Looked at two online dictionaries with audio pronunciation. The first dictionary gave me my second pronunciation option and the second dictionary produced the other option.

So, I just have to ask: what is the generally accepted pronunciation?

I know, gives the impression I have to much time on my hands. Not the case, honestly 🙄 some things just tweak my curiosity!

Andy

My OED CD for what it's worth gives:

gib, n.5

(dʒɪb, gɪb)

Which seems to suggest that either one is at least common usage.

I've only known gibs for adjusters on machines. The Oxford English dictionary defines gib with a few meanings but gibbon only as an animal.

I thought perhaps the etymology of the word might point us in the right direction:

**LINK** https://etymology.en-academic.com/16822/gib

… but it further muddies the water !

.

Just skimming through that lot, I think we should rely upon whatever Webster’s of 1913 suggests.

[ no, I haven’t looked yet ]

MichaelG.

I've always used Gib as in the Bee Gees

Jib is for boats and cranes

Edited By JasonB on 21/09/2023 06:58:16

Oxford UK, Webster USA.

The questioner asked which we used - dictionaries are collections of all possible words/meanings, and in my opinion an unreliable guide to common use. I have always used jib.

As does the online version of the OED. That is for British English, but apparently it is always a soft "g" in the USA.

Personally, I have always used a soft "g".

Working most of my life in machine tool manufacture in the UK it was always a hard g, as in gibbon. We used to use them a lot, years ago.all machines had at least one until they mostly got designed for linear rails.

Hi, according to my Readers Digest universal dictionary, it says that gib as concerned with the machines we use, is pronounced as in gibbon & the Bee Gees surname, However Gib, (informal) Gibraltar is pronounce as jib. Whereas, jib is a triangular sail from the foretopmast head to the jib boom, or the bowsprit / bow in a small craft, or the arm of a crane / boom of a derrick, and is pronounced as Jib.

Regards Nick.

The majority of words that have the Gibraltar pronunciation of g are of French Origin. I went to school with someone whose surname was Gibb pronounced as in gibbon. So I wonder what the origin of the word is, is it from French or is it from someone's name? Maybe that would give some insight. Try Susie Dent, she likes this sort of thing.

Martin C

Or what’s more to the point when we’re they invented and by whom.

regards Martin

Does sound more like a gib headed key though where the gib head acts a bit like a hook to aid it's removal.

As in all language there is not a correct pronunciation, merely one in common usage which often alters through time.

Gibraltar was originally a Moorish colony named after its conquerer as Jabel Tarik...Tarik's mountain. So easy to see the corruption to Gibraltar with a soft G or J.

For what it is worth I in my ignorance employ a hard G as in Gibb.

I've been in and out of mechaniscal engineering over the years, but never met a British engineer use the hard 'g' for the gib strip of a machine. Ditto the part of a crane.

Given the number of influences on the English language, there aaren't manu useful rules on pronunciation.

Bill

Gib in the engineering family where I grew up & also where I did my apprenticeship with the CEGB. If it was pronounced jib it would be spelled with a J.

Jeorje

It is a matter of what you are used to. I've always pronounced it Jib but I know some engineers that use the hard G Gib.

A similar problem can occur with the G in Giga - Gigabyte, Gigabit etc., which in my usage (and all the techies I know) takes the hard G, but my brother insists on pronouncing it Jiga... very grating on my ear.

I've always pronounced it as "jib" but perhaps I'm just talking gibberish.

I wonder if there is a north/south divide in the pronunciation? I was brought up in southern England.

Russell