[danpalmer]

FYI, the saying is "champing at the bit", it comes from horses being restrained.

[jasinjames]

Huh. I never knew "champing" was the proper spelling [0]

[0] https://www.npr.org/sections/memmos/2016/06/09/605796769/che...

[mylifeandtimes]

hey, I appreciate your love of language and sharing with us.

I'm wondering if we couldn't re-think "bit" to the computer science usage instead of the thing that goes in the horse's mouth, and what it would mean for an AI agent to "champ at the bit"?

What new sayings will we want?

[nilamo]

Byting at the bit?

[odo1242]

chomping at the bit

[danpalmer]

Actually it was originally "champing" – to grind or gnash teeth. The "chomping" (to bite) alternative cropped up more recently as people misheard and misunderstood, but it's generally accepted as an alternative now.

[odo1242]

I see

[kortilla]

It’s actually accepted as the primary now and telling people about “champing” is just seen as archaic.

[danpalmer]

Do you have a source on this, or a definition for what it means to be "primary" here? All I can find is sources confirming that "champing" is the original and more technically correct, but that "chomping" is an accepted variant.