#knucklestones

What Is The Origin Of (228)?…

First dibs

Watching children playing, they seem to be forever squabbling over who should have first go. Perhaps it is a vestige of an innate survival instinct. And there seems to be a special vocabulary that they use; “bags I go first” or “let me have first dibs.” It is the latter which will be the subject of this etymological enquiry.

The starting point is, not unsurprisingly, a game played by…