_Derivation of the Word Fib._--Can any of your readers suggest a proper
derivation of this word? Old Bailey, to whom a reference would occasionally
save many doubts and inquiries, connects it with "fable." Johnson says
nothing as to the etymology, but explains it as "a cant word among
children;" while, at the same time, he inserts it on the authority of Pope
and Arbuthnot.
In reading the works of that very learned and instructive author, Samuel
Werenfels, I was struck with a passage in his _Diatribe de Meteoris_, p.
272. (Amstel. Wetstein, 1702), which seemed to furnish a probable solution
of the question:--"Propter abusum nominis Phoebi evenit, ut omnes qui,
altius in oratione, quam decet, se extollere volunt, Gallis hodiernis
[Greek: phoibologein] Phoebum loqui, _Parler_ _Phebus_, dicantur." So far
as the sound is concerned, this seems a nearer approximation to "fib" than
the word "fable." The sense, too, is not _very_ remote from the accepted
one of "_talking fibs_." Query, as to this conjecture?