Jim informs us that the word "wibble" is now in the OED. How much do you want to bet that it'll stay in usage longer than some of the other new additions like "bling-bling" and so on?

Posted by: demitria monde thraam | http://involution.org | Fri Jun 20 04:02:31 2003

WOW. I am floored. As far as I know it was my mate, <a href="http://deekoo.net">Deek</a> who coined this word, as he's been saying "wibble/wibbling/wibbly" for years. Or at least he was One Among Many who thought of it simultaneously, as can sometimes be the case.

What is the OED? And what is its definition for "wibble"?

In Deek's context "wibble" refers to a certain sort of chaos, a less-serious sort of fuck-up that is non-deterministic and somewhat mysterious. (My definition, not his; perhaps he will clarify the connotational subtleties of the word for us after I show him this blog entry...)

Wibble can be a noun or a verb but seems to be used most often by Deek (and those who hang out with him, who pick it up by osmosis) in its adjective form: wibbly.

Example: "My browser gets wibbly when I am on pages designed by Front Page users, since I am using a Macintosh."

Or "Did you manage to get the wibble out of your config file yet?"

Let's hear it for neologisms!

Posted by: acb | http://dev.null.org | Fri Jun 20 04:35:35 2003

Oxford English Dictionary. And the word presumably dates back to Blackadder.

Follow the link to find a copy of the OED definition.

Posted by: Graham | http:// | Fri Jun 20 07:55:59 2003

Well, Blackadder Goes Forth was certainly where I first heard it in that sense. Although I imagined it was spelt "w'bble".

"London, the capital of Mars!"

Posted by: Alex | http://ftang.ping.pong.com | Sun Jun 22 13:29:16 2003

A friend of mine was christened 'Wibble' by her assosciates. Had something to do with her ample cleavage, which wibbled when she wobbled ;)

Posted by: Alex | http:// | Sun Jun 22 13:51:17 2003

(No she doesn't do parties.)

Posted by: acb | http://dev.null.org | Sun Jun 22 15:11:19 2003

Wibbled when she wobbled? Wasn't that from an Ian Dury song?

And do I know this friend?

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