Chomping at our heels
Posted: April 17, 2024 Filed under: Uncategorized 3 CommentsTyler Kennedy, a retired Pittsburgh Penguin and hockey commentator, was talking about the playoff race on the Pittsburgh sports radio show 93.7 The Fan. At the time the Penguins were ahead of three teams by one point but Kennedy said those teams were “chomping at our heels”. This is a mashup of “champing at the bit” (waiting in an impatient way to do something) and “nipping on (someone’s or something’s) heels” (to be very close behind in rank, score, etc).
Which leads me to ask the question: Is the idiom “champing at the bit” or “chomping at the bit”? I always thought “champing” was correct, until I read this NPR piece:
“The listener could have complained that “chomping at the bit” is a cliché, and that it’s one we’ve used at least three times so far this month. But his gripe was more specific — that we should have said “champing at the bit.”
To the dictionary we go:
Webster’s says “champ at the bit” is to “show impatience at restraint; be restless.” It comes from something said about horses when they bite their bits “repeatedly and restlessly.” They “champ.”
The AP says “champ at the bit” is “the original and better form.”
But, Webster’s adds that “chomp at the bit” is a variation.
What’s more, no less an authority than William Safire weighed in 31 years ago, saying that “to spell it champing at the bit when most people would say chomping at the bit is to slavishly follow outdated dictionary preferences.”
The Grammarist blog also comes down on the side of “chomping.” It points out that “champing at the bit can sound funny to people who aren’t familiar with the idiom or the obsolete sense of champ, while most English speakers can infer the meaning of chomping at the bit.”
We’ve been … itching to issue a note about some picky point of punctuation or grammar. After chewing on this one for a while, we’re not going to insist on “champing.” Feel free to use it. After all, you’ll score points with the lexicographers out there.
But “chomping” is fine.
A shout out to John Kooser for hearing this malaphor and sending it in!
Malaphors 
We are drumming down our country day by day by letting those who are using the wrong word or using it incorrectly? Sure, as the Grammarist says, “champing at the bit can sound funny to people who aren’t familiar with the idiom,” so why not correct people when they use “chomping”, and familiarize them with the idiom so that the right word doesn’t sound funny to them. And as far as William Saffire is concerned, yes, most people probably do say “chomping at the bit” because nobody bothers to correct them.
”Chomping” is chewing noisily. “Champing” is being restlessly impatiently. When someone is “champing at the bit,” they are restlessly impatient at the restraint. They are not chewing noisily. So why should we accept what’s wrong, instead of correcting to what is right? Are we that lazy and willing to let everyone dumb down?
I tend to agree, but language is fluid, and it seems chomping has outpaced champing. Kind of like “nip it in the bud”. I hear nowadays “nip it in the butt” so often that I think it too will become an accepted idiom.
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