It’shard enoughto differentiate between two similar English terms : effectandaffect , for illustration , ordisinterestedanduninterested . thrash about a third into the mix and you might start to feel like it ’s more trouble than it ’s worth to assay to habituate any one of them correctly . Case in point : jive , jibe , andgibe .
Gibeis the former of the three , having recruit the lexicon way back in the 16th 100 . You could use it as averb , mean “ to utter sneeringly ” or “ to utter taunt , ” per the Oxford English Dictionary , or as anoundescribing such twit . Here ’s where it starts to get puzzling : Jibeis an alternative spelling ofgibe . So a schoolyard bully , for example , can technically discard jibes or gibes at their classmates .
In the nineteenth century , another definitionofjibecropped up : “ to chimein(with ) , ” or “ to be in harmony or treaty . ” While it ’s not wholly clear where this sentience comes from , the OED suggests that it may be a var. of the wordchimeitself . Say a detective unearth some evidence that contradicts their leading theory about a certain offense . They could say the new intel doesn’tjibe withwhat they already acknowledge .
Then , in the 1920s , jiveappeared , typically describing talking or conversation that was misleading , fake , or just plain wrong . Though the full term ’s exact parentage are a mystery , Black Americans — especially in Harlem — were subservient in popularizing it . Eventually , jivealso come to meanjazz(often swing music , specifically ) , as well as the case of trip the light fantastic toe you ’d do to jazz .
And here ’s where it gets really confusing : By the forties , according to the OED , people had also started usingjiveto mean “ to bait ” and also “ to make sense ; to fit in . ” In short , English speakers have been mistakingjiveforjibe(orgibe ) for a in force 80 class — long enough , in fact , for the OED to recognize those two passably accidental definition ofjiveas prescribed ones .
But not everybody does . So if you want to avoid having to take this entire clause to someone to convince them that , no , you did n’t just usejiveincorrectly , here are some unfailing road map :
