Chomping at the Bit or Champing at the Bit?

A few readers have strongly suggested to us that we are incorrect in using “chomping at the bit” instead of “champing at the bit” We did, however, make a deliberate decision to go with chomping over champing.

For starters, the book is about horse racing terminology used in “everyday” language. We have most commonly heard “chomping at the bit.” Though I hate to pass on wrong word usage as correct simply because it is used incorrectly by the majority of the people, we decided that technically “chomping at the bit” was not incorrect. Even if the change in usage has come about because people misheard the word champing or were not familiar with it, substituting chomp for champ pretty much keeps the meaning intact. We did find some others who feel the same way and who offer more in depth explanations. See this Word Detective posting on  and this Language Log posting.

Let us know what your thoughts are.

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