There are a number of meanings attributed to the word 'GRIBBLE' has, some colloquial, some scientific, and some just interesting. We have collected the various meaning we have heard for your interest.
According to Joseph Wright's "English Dialect Dictionary" the noun 'gribble' was in use in Devon, Cornwall, Dorset and Somerset to mean:
·
'A young crab-tree or blackthorn, or a knotty stick
made from it, an apple-tree for grafting; any seedling tree or shrub',
·
'Refuse from "braok" when made into lard',
·
'A small pellet or grain'
The first of these is supported by the first documented reference to a GRIBBLE of which we are aware, taken from P H Reaney's "Dictionary of British Surnames", 1958:
'Gribble, Gribbell: Walter atte Gribbele 1330 Devon Subsidy Roll, Devon.
From residence near a crabtree or blackthorn (Middle English gribbele)'
In Devon and Cornwall: The small pieces of fried batter which fall off the fried fish in the traditionally english fish and chips (whether wrapped in newspaper - to taste better - or not)
This colloquialism can be no older than deep frying - although it may have a deeper heritage!
Apparently some souvenir shops in the southwest of England have been selling sea shells, equipped with wobbly eyes and encased in wooden cages, under the name of 'gribbles'.
Hope this is not a portent of things to come!
A small marine isopod crustacean that burrows into and rapidly destroys submerged timber, as the piles of wharves, both in Europe and America. (Limnoria lignorum, Limnoria terebrans)
Apparently there is also a seagrass (eating) variant, Lynesia himantopoda. There is a picture of this bloke on Zac GRIBBLE's website.
Given how prolific GRIBBLE's have been in the various colonies and parts of the 'New World' we would not be surprised to find that there is a larger family, with a more widespread geographical distribution, of seagoing 'termites' et al than those named above.
Bill GRIBBLE of Ontario has suggested that the GRIBBLE's should be able to take credit for defeating the Spanish Armada (being good English woodborers), by boring out the hulls of the Spanish ship. Thus England was preserved for the English (as opposed to the Spanish), and history took its proper course. Without the GRIBBLE's we might all be Spanish speaking and who knows how history could have been messed up.
While this theory has great appeal, we doubt that it is likely to gain widespread acceptance.
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Please send your input, comments and suggestions by email to Jules Gribble or Michael Gribble.
Page Last Updated: 23 December 2003