gab

Meanings

Noun

• Idle chatter.
• The mouth or gob.
• One of the open-forked ends of rods controlling reversing in early steam engines.

Verb

• To jest; to tell lies in jest; exaggerate; lie.
• To talk or chatter a lot, usually on trivial subjects.
• To speak or tell falsely.

Origin

• From Middle English gabben, from Old English gabban ("to scoff, mock, delude, jest") and Old Norse gabba ("to mock, make sport of"); both from Proto-Germanic *gabbōną ("to mock, jest"), from Proto-Indo-European *ghabh- ("to be split, be forked, gape"). Cognate with Scots gab ("to mock, prate"), North Frisian gabben ("to jest, sport"), Middle Dutch gabben ("to mock"), Middle Low German gabben ("to jest, have fun").