March 19, 1998

dibs

I have recently re-encountered the word "dibs." I know the meaning and seem to recall from the dim recesses of my past that the word was connected to games of marbles. Where does it come from?

I assume you are thinking of the word dibs in the sense 'a first claim on an item; a right of priority', as in "I've got dibs on the car when Dad brings it back." This is often used as an interjection: "Dibs on the car!" It is first recorded about 1930, though as with many words that are chiefly used by children, it is likely to be somewhat older.

The earliest sense of dibs, from the early nineteenth century, was 'money'. Another sense was 'a share; portion'; though it would seem that this 'share' sense is the inspiration for the 'first claim' sense, the 'share' sense was chiefly a term of the criminal underworld, and seems never to have been very common.

The word dibs probably derives from dibstone, a type of marble used by children (originally made from sheep's knucklebones, I'm sure you'd like to know). This in turn is probably from the verb dib 'to pat or tap', an echoic word along the lines of dab.

Another marble connection that may be relevant is the word dubs, used to claim two or more marbles knocked out of the ring by the same shot. By extension, dubs is used like dibs, to lay claim to some right or privilege. This dubs probably derives from double, in reference to the two marbles. Dibs may be semantically influenced by dubs, influenced by the 'money' sense of dibs. This dubs is first attested in the nineteenth century.