Jibe

X FACTOR: CONSERVATIVES MAKE JEDWARD JIBE AT LABOUR
   - The ever-so-fuddy-duddy Daily Telegraph

Aside from everything else that's morally wrong with this headline, I have never really understood what a jibe is. I can find it in the dictionary but I have never spoken the word in my life. 'Oi!' I have never shouted during a row. 'Stop making jibes and hurling them at me. I'll only brush off or dismiss them.'

Some dictionaries tell me that the word doesn't exist in America, or that over there it means fit well with, which is odd as the New York Daily News used it the other day. The only people who don't use the word are people (as opposed to journalists).

The typical headline form, by the way, is:

NAME EMOTION AT "PEJORATIVE" JIBE

As in:

DOGBERRY LANGUOR AT "LEMMING-FONDLER" JIBE

Nautical jibing