different between chaff vs chiff

English

Etymology

From Middle English chaf, from Old English ?eaf, from Proto-Germanic *kaf?. Cognate with Scots caff, Saterland Frisian Sääf, West Frisian tsjêf, Dutch kaf, German Low German Kaff, regional German Kaff.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /t?æf/, /t???f/
• (US) IPA^(key): /t?æf/
• Rhymes: -æf

Noun

chaff (usually uncountable, plural chaffs)

1. The inedible parts of a grain-producing plant.

   Coordinate term: bran

   • So take the corn and leave the chaff behind.
2. Straw or hay cut up fine for the food of cattle.
3. (figuratively) Any excess or unwanted material, resource, or person; anything worthless.
4. Light jesting talk; banter; raillery.
5. (military) Loose material, e.g. small strips of aluminum foil dropped from aircraft, intended to interfere with radar detection.

   Synonym: window

Derived terms

Translations

See also

• paleaceous
• paleous

Verb

chaff (third-person singular simple present chaffs, present participle chaffing, simple past and past participle chaffed)

1. (intransitive) To use light, idle language by way of fun or ridicule; to banter.
2. (transitive) To make fun of; to turn into ridicule by addressing in ironical or bantering language; to quiz.

Translations

References

• chaff in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

• Chaff in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)

Middle English

Noun

chaff

1. Alternative form of chaf

English

Etymology

Onomatopoeic.

Noun

chiff (plural chiffs)

1. (music) The characteristic sound made as part of the attack of certain notes on the organ.
   • 1998, Fletcher, N.H. and Rossing, T.D, The Physics of Musical Instruments, Springer Science & Business Media, page 570

     In all these adjustments, the voicer must have regard to the steady sound of the pipe, to its promptness of speech, and to the presence or absence of any desired starting transient or chiff.