While teaching a course today, I told the group I could see they were eager for an upcoming exercise, describing them as “champing at the bit.” This phrase is very commonly phrased incorrectly as “chomping at the bit.” It’s easy to understand why, since “chomping” generally means “biting down on something.” But the horse-specific term is “champing,” and that’s the correct use of the idiom.
Since everyone understands perfectly well what you mean when you say “chomping at the bit,” you might think: who cares?
After the course was over, one of the participants came up to specifically thank me for using the correct “champing” phrase. He also told me that it made him take me more seriously!
And that’s the point. If someone doesn’t know the correct phrase, you lose nothing by using the incorrect one. But occasionally you will lose people if you offer too many mistakes in your speech, especially in a role where you’re trying to educate or persuade. 99% of the time, they won’t tell you. But you’ll lose them anyway.
That doesn’t mean you should become obsessive or paranoid about every word you say. What it does mean is that if someone informs you of something along those lines, you shouldn’t scoff and dismiss it as pedantic. You should be grateful that they opened the door for you to reach more people!
