gab
English
Etymology
From Middle English gabben, from Old English gabban (“to scoff, mock, delude, jest”) and Old Norse gabba (“to mock, make sport of”); both from Proto-Germanic *gabbaną (“to mock, jest”), from Proto-Indo-European *ghabh- (“to be split, be forked, gape”). Cognate with Scots gab (“to mock, prate”), North Frisian gabben (“to jest, sport”), Middle Dutch gabben (“to mock”), Middle Low German gabben (“to jest, have fun”).
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ɡæb/
- Rhymes: -æb
Noun
gab (countable and uncountable, plural gabs)
- Idle chatter.
- The mouth or gob.
- One of the open-forked ends of rods controlling reversing in early steam engines.
Synonyms
- See also Thesaurus:talkative
Derived terms
Translations
Idle chatter
Verb
gab (third-person singular simple present gabs, present participle gabbing, simple past and past participle gabbed)
Translations
Amanab
Danish
German
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ɡaːp/
Audio (Austria) (file) Audio (file) - Rhymes: -aːp
Old French
Alternative forms
- gaab
- gap
Noun
gab m (oblique plural gas, nominative singular gas, nominative plural gab)
- joke
- circa 1177, Chrétien de Troyes, Le Chevalier de la Charrette, page 50 (of the Livres de Poche Lettres gothiques edition, →ISBN, line 96:
- Est ce a certes ou a gas?
- Is this certain or in jest?
-
Related terms
References
- Godefroy, Frédéric, Dictionnaire de l'ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du IXe au XVe siècle (1881) (gab)
- gab on the Anglo-Norman On-Line Hub
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