That's Champing, Champing

Help me with one, please. All you folks out there in Blogland, you’re being recruited to cleanse the English language of an idiom gone amuck. One that everyday folks kill almost every time; yet one that you’ll even hear the horsewise slay, too.

Understand something first, please. This has nothing to do with winning the 134th Kentucky Derby. We’re too early for any serious meat there right now and, besides, things happen to be especially slow on the racing front in Southern California at the moment. So, if you only do Derby, give this one a pass and catch us on the next go-round.

But if you’ll join my clean-up and correct brigade this Derby season, we might be able to make a dent in the unfortunate use of the word “chomping” for “champing,” and put an end to the thought of poor horses grinding their teeth “on the bit” instead of merely “at” it.

Whatinthehell, you say, is the man talking about. Well, it has to do with a phrase that comes up often and, it seems, even moreso now as we approach Derby time and folks – horsy and otherwise – think about our four-legged friends more and more. It is the phrase – correctly – “champing at the bit,” which – incorrectly – is bastardized into “chomping at the bit,” or, even worse, “chomping on the bit.”

It comes up in newspaper and magazine articles, it comes up in television interviews, it comes up on the radio (heard one of those erudite NPR ladies go with “chomping on the bit” recently) and it comes up in simple conversations, some held – shudder – even at your local racetrack.

So let’s get into a definition first. The idiom, or colloquialism, or – simply – phrase is “champing at the bit” and, in most dictionaries, you’ll find it explained as “to show impatience at being held back or delayed;” or “to be very eager.” It is a phrase that originated with the horse and man’s attempt to control and direct him. Your average docile horse would follow the lead of his rider through signals conveyed with the reins which are, of course, attached to the bit. The bit (and most of them are steel, so you can see where it would be both wrong – and painfully so – for a horse to be “chomping on the bit”) is inserted in the horse’s mouth – a sensitive part of their big bodies – and thus a nearby and effective way to solicit cooperation from the animal.

But whereas the mellow animal would fall in line with the wishes passed on through the bit, the eager horse, or perhaps the unhappy one, could send his own set of messages back to his/her rider by champing (which can mean chewing, but also properly means to work the jaws and teeth vigorously) at the bit, often accompanied by other body language that helps state the issue. It might be a case of merely wanting to note “Hey, buddy, I’m feeling so good I’ve just got to go.” Or it might be a stronger matter of “Look out, pal, you’re about to take a flying flip.”

In any event the phrase, correctly stated or otherwise, has worked its way solidly into our language and comes up often in the context of a competitive situation, such as the presidential elections now filling the print columns and the airwaves. And with primaries spouting up everywhere, and the Derby not far behind, you’re going to hear it, or read it, over and over again. And when you hear it wrong – please, please – let folks know about it.

If you read about a candidate who was “chomping at the bit” in your local paper, dash off a letter to the editor and set him/her -- and their writer -- right. If you hear it on TV or radio, fire in an e-mail and tell them “Hey, guys, it’s ‘champing, champing.’” And if the fellow sitting next to you in the paddock says “That horse is chomping on the bit,” let him know the right way to go and, unless it’s a sprint race, don’t you dare bet a dime on the beast.

Together we can do it. We can get on the righteous side and set the record straight. We can, in the end, stomp out the chomp. And be a champ in the process.