different between jab vs jabber

English

Etymology

Originally a Scottish (unclear if Scots or Scottish English) form of English job (“peck, poke, thrust”), from Middle English jobben.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /d?æb/
• Rhymes: -æb

Noun

jab (plural jabs)

1. A quick stab or blow; a poking or thrusting motion.
   • 1952, Bernard Malamud, The Natural, Chapter 9,

     He tore in for the ball, make a running jab for it and held it.

2. (boxing) A short straight punch.
3. (Britain) A medical hypodermic injection (vaccination or inoculation)

   Our dog was exposed to rabies, so the whole family went to a clinic to get our jabs.

4. (Britain, Australia) A vaccination, whether or not delivered via conventional injection.
5. (US, figuratively) A mild verbal insult.

Derived terms

• jabby

Translations

Verb

jab (third-person singular simple present jabs, present participle jabbing, simple past and past participle jabbed)

1. To poke or thrust abruptly, or to make such a motion.
2. To deliver a quick punch.
3. (slang, Britain) To give someone an injection

Translations

References

Douglas Harper (2001–2021) , “jab”, in Online Etymology Dictionary

Irish

Etymology

Borrowed from English job.

Noun

jab m (genitive singular jab, nominative plural jabanna)

1. job, piece of work
2. post, employment

Declension

Derived terms

• jabaire m (“(cattle-)jobber”)

References

• "jab" in Foclóir Gaeilge–Béarla, An Gúm, 1977, by Niall Ó Dónaill.

Italian

Etymology

Borrowed from English jab.

Noun

jab m (invariable)

1. jab (boxing punch)

Spanish

Noun

jab m (plural jabs)

1. (boxing) jab

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?d?æb?(?)/
• Rhymes: -æb?(?)

Etymology 1

Imitative.

Verb

jabber (third-person singular simple present jabbers, present participle jabbering, simple past and past participle jabbered)

1. (intransitive) To talk rapidly, indistinctly, or unintelligibly; to utter gibberish or nonsense.
   • 1829, James Hogg, The Shepherd’s Calendar, New York: A.T. Goodrich, Volume I, Chapter 9, “Mary Burnet,” p. 184,^[1]

     Allanson made some sound in his throat, as if attempting to speak, but his tongue refused its office, and he only jabbered.

   • 1851, Herman Melville, Moby-Dick, Chapter 19,^[2]

     “What are you jabbering about, shipmate?” said I.

2. (transitive) To utter rapidly or indistinctly; to gabble.
   • 1939, H. G. Wells, The Holy Terror, Book One, Chapter 1, Section 2,^[3]

     He wept very little, but when he wept he howled aloud, and jabbered wild abuse, threats and recriminations through the wet torrent of his howling.

Translations

Noun

jabber (uncountable)

1. Rapid or incoherent talk, with indistinct utterance; gibberish.
   • 1735, Jonathan Swift, Gulliver’s Travels, in The Works of Jonathan Swift, edited by George Faulkner, Dublin, 1735, Volume 3, A Letter from Capt. Gulliver to his Cousin Sympson, pp. v-vi,^[4]

     And, is there less Probability in my Account of the Houyhnhnms or Yahoos, when it is manifest as to the latter, there are so many Thousands even in this City, who only differ from their Brother Brutes in Houyhnhnmland, because they use a Sort of a Jabber, and do not go naked.

   • 1918, Carl Sandburg, “Jabberers” in Cornhuskers, New York: Henry Holt & Co., p. 68,^[5]

     Two tongues from the depths,

     Alike only as a yellow cat and a green parrot are alike,

     Fling their staccato tantalizations

     Into a wildcat jabber

     Over a gossamer web of unanswerables.

Derived terms

• jabberment (obsolete)

Translations

Etymology 2

jab +? -er

Noun

jabber (plural jabbers)

1. One who or that which jabs.
2. A kind of hand-operated corn planter.
   • 1999, Nicholas P. Hardeman, Across the Bloody Chasm

     The jabber was the most popular hand-operated corn planter ever devised. […] Inset shows jaws closed for jabbing (left) and open for depositing kernels (right).