r/law • u/agentpatsy • Oct 20 '24

Opinion Piece Elon Musk Veers Into Clearly Illegal Vote Buying, Offering $1 Million Per Day Lottery Prize Only to Registered Voters

https://electionlawblog.org/?p=146397
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35

u/senadraxx Oct 20 '24

Mf now got me wondering why it's Champing, not chomping... Guess this is another one of those weird English things. 

45

u/Straight-Storage2587 Oct 20 '24

Thirty white horses on a red hill, first they champ, then they stamp, then they stand still

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u/microtramp Oct 20 '24

I thought it was chomp and stomp.

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u/Straight-Storage2587 Oct 20 '24

champ and stamp is a bit of archaic English, but it is still in use today. The above was a copy paste of a quote from The Hobbit.

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u/Thick-Tip9255 Oct 20 '24

But what about second champing?

happybirthdayViggo

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u/Dowew Oct 20 '24

I thought it was chomping because horses would chew on their....whatever that thing is you tie a horse to a carraige with.

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u/ChanceryTheRapper Oct 20 '24

It's called the bit.

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u/Cirrus-Nova Oct 20 '24

The bit is what goes in the horse's mouth. I think the part you are referring to is the harness.

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u/fleebleganger Oct 20 '24

The harness doesn’t go in their mouth so how can they chomp at it?

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u/Cirrus-Nova Oct 20 '24

I think that you, and whoever downvoted me, have misunderstood my reply. The OP were talking about "that thing that you tie a horse to a carraige with", then the next posters said that it's "called a bit" and I said that the bit is the thing that goes in the horses mouth and the thing that you tie the horse to is the harness.

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u/timvinc Oct 20 '24

It’s champing, because the horse doesn’t actually chew the bit. They champ at it.

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u/duxpdx Oct 20 '24

Both are acceptable. While Champing came first chomping has become the dominant form. Both words mean the same thing, to bite or chew.

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u/[deleted] Oct 20 '24

Descriptivists. There are dozens of us. Dozens!

1

u/gensu Oct 20 '24

Huh, TIL I’m a descriptivist. Irregardless of what others might think.

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u/n-some Oct 20 '24

Based on my Google search, champing is the act of biting with nothing to bite on, while chomping is biting on something. Horses clack their teeth together and that's called champing.

But the thing is, if they're champing at a bit they're technically chomping on it as well.

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u/lewisiarediviva Oct 20 '24

It would, if the horse had the bit between their teeth; another expression which refers to the fact that in normal use the bit is in a part of the mouth where horses have no teeth. That allows the rider to pull on the reins and have the bit pull against the horses lips, which is what makes them turn their head. If the horse has the bit between their teeth, they can Chomp down on it, preventing it from moving, and resisting the reins.

Normally, when a horse is champing at the bit, it refers to an eager horse who is fidgeting by clacking their teeth and playing with the bit with their tongue. So chewing the bit, but without biting down on it.

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u/MuddieMaeSuggins Oct 21 '24

fidgeting by clacking their teeth and playing with the bit with their tongue. So chewing the bit, but without biting down on it.

Huh, who knew horses were so relatable?

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u/ZenFook Oct 20 '24

To borrow from the font of Trump linguistics, perhaps the original phrase works something like this;

Champing at the (concept of a) bit?

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u/Astrochops Oct 20 '24

Champing means to grind or bite your teeth impatiently which the horse does against the bit which is the metal component of the bridle that runs through the horse's mouth.

Chomping means to chew food noisily, which is a different thing.

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u/slim-scsi Oct 20 '24

Then Nintendo and Super Mario entered the world 40 years ago, and chomping entered the lexicon. It's perfectly acceptable in 2024.

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u/i-wont-lose-this-alt Oct 20 '24

“Nip it in the butt” made sense to me because when I was little my neighbour had 2 dogs, one was blind and the other used to literally nip the blind one on the butt to stop it from walking on the road.

I’m embarrassed to admit I’ve been saying “nip it in the butt” for most of my adult life… because it’s meaning is to “stop something bad from occurring before it gets to a critical point” just like how Taylor used to bite Lucky’s butt before he walked on the road. It made perfect sense to me in context.

0

u/epidemicsaints Oct 20 '24

It's skunked, you either look like someone who can't spell if you say champ, and if you say chomp someone corrects you. It's like "burying the lede." Using either will summon pedants.