Semper Ubi Sub Ubi
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osiris:
December 26th, 2007 at 3:05 pm
My grandmother used the word “neb” as a verb. “Neb out”, she’d say sweetly. She grew up in Kentucky (probably a Pittsburgh connection somewhere) and moved to the Southwest in the ’30s, dragging many such verbal oddments with her.
This site is excellent, by the way.
terrymac:
January 11th, 2008 at 7:01 pm
I was born and raised in the ‘Burgh — one of the few towns to use an “h” after “burg” – where “neb” and “redd up your room” and “gum bands” are common usage.
One theory I’ve heard is that steel magnate Andrew Carnegie, a Scot, may have inspired some of our regional slang, whether directly or via the importation of other Scots.
dan:
January 1st, 2009 at 4:33 pm
Im from Northern England, Newcastle Upon Tyne and was laughing earlier today thinking of some words in our dialect: Geordie. Just so you know, we use nebby here and its interesting to find that it seems to have lived on in another part of the world in a state in the US.
Joseph:
June 2nd, 2009 at 8:15 am
Thanks for digging this out for us. A friend and I were just discussing these Pittsburgh terms and I too was initially drawn to “nebbish” thinking there was some antiquated meaning associated with the word. Very enlightening, indeed. BTW: It’s no wonder the residents of Ohio warned you to stay on the highway. In Pennsylvania, we consider their driving habits as extremely hazardous and dimwitted. So I suppose many of them get into accidents and thus word got back to the homeland that driving though western PA might be dangerous. It’s really the hills of course. Our roads are often narrow and winding and over the years we’ve developed a certain set of assumptions that flatlanders might not understand.
Tom:
January 2nd, 2010 at 1:26 pm
Bologna is one of the most amazing places in Italy!
tawnya:
January 22nd, 2010 at 10:08 am
I am from Pittsburgh and now live in Ohio..i always use the word “nebby” and NO ONE in this state has ever heard that word! I thought I was losing my noodle! This morning I mentioned “corning” that we do on Halloween, to my man..again..another term Ohioans never heard?? Am I from Mars? I type in nebby and POOF! Its a Pittsburg word!lol OK..so we have our own lingo! But proud of it!
Jeff:
June 14th, 2010 at 2:34 pm
For additional info, here in Western PA some people will refer to the worst of the worst of nosy people as “neb-sh*ts”, singular is “neb-sh*t”. In case you can’t figure it out, you put an “i” in for the “*”.
Laura:
March 24th, 2011 at 12:41 pm
My family moved to Hartford City, Indiana. I soon heard the word “nibby” being used and had to ask for its definition. I was told that it meant “nosey”. I have lived in other communities in Indiana, Illinois and Kansas, and had never heard the word.
Jack:
July 21st, 2011 at 2:22 pm
Just had this mentioned on KDKA in pittsburgh, thats how I found it.
Bev Lewis akaBeverly Wells Author:
March 9th, 2012 at 2:50 pm
I,too,grew up hearing my mother(who was from RI) use the term neb-nose–meaning a busybody. I’m trying to find out the date it was first used as I’d like to use it in an upcoming novel of mine. If anyone can help me with the actual original date it was first used I’d be most appreciative. Thanks
Karen:
February 9th, 2013 at 9:58 pm
My Philadelphia grandmother used to call people nebby noses, but my Pittsburgh grandmother didn’t. However, the Philly grandma was married to a Liverpudlian – could she have picked it up from him, I wonder?
@Bev Lewis, I’m probably too late for you on this, but here’s a website that lists early usages of it.
Theresa:
July 25th, 2013 at 1:14 pm
My father used the word Nebby to describe someone who was picky with their food. I grew up in the countryside in Co.Monaghan, Ireland.
Elizabeth:
July 29th, 2013 at 10:21 pm
I am from Central Indiana and grew up hearing my family use nibby. I just used it tonight with my kids (in TX) and found that my husband and none of my 4 kids had ever heard it.
Pokey:
June 7th, 2014 at 3:50 pm
I am in debate with my son about the origins of this word, and was raised in the Pacific NW of this country, and never heard “being a nib-nose” anywhere but here in Western PA. I used to notice it when I first moved here, and also the “you’uns” used to bug me, too.
EBS:
December 11th, 2014 at 2:27 pm
I was born in Sumter, S. C. in 1943. “Nebby nose” was commonly used in our town in that WWII era. It was not cool to be told that you were a “nebby nose”. I just remembered it for the first time in my adult life, last night. My wife grew up 50 miles west in an area rich in Swiss-German ancestry since colonial times, and she says that she never heard that term. I just called my sister who well remembers having been known as a “nubby nose”. What it meant in our culture seemed to largely apply to children who couldn’t resist looking in drawers, boxes, or closets when visiting someone else’s home (a particular form of sticking ones’ nose into another’s stuff or business).
Pat:
February 2nd, 2016 at 5:04 pm
Southern NJ born and raised, lived here all my 51 years and I and many others I know use the word nibby. Absolutely no connection in my family to the Pittsburgh area, although we do have English/Scottish/Irish ancestry, but that goes back to the early 1700s. Interesting word, thanks for the info on it!
Mary:
February 24th, 2017 at 11:58 am
I grew up in southern New Jersey (Cumberland County) and nibby was commonly used there.
Laura:
May 5th, 2017 at 8:05 pm
The word also shows up in the writing of Ann Cleeves in the Vera mysteries.
Mary:
December 2nd, 2017 at 2:14 pm
The nuns used the term “Nebby” with us children in the 50’s. This was in California, but the nuns were from Pittsburgh.
Stacey:
February 3rd, 2018 at 1:39 pm
I’m from north central West Virginia (probably 2-2.5 hrs south of Pittsburgh), and grew up saying “nibby”. My grandmother and mother referred to nibby folks as being a “nib s**”. :) I was called this more than once growing up! My Philly born husband found the word quite amusing – It wasn’t until a few years into our marriage I realized this wasn’t a commonly used term.
Kevin:
February 21st, 2018 at 8:47 am
Ha, glad to see someone else from South Jersey. I am from South Jersey, Salem. The phrases to nib, nibby, nibby nose , nibsh*t and various versions have the meaning that a person is always into someone else’s business.
John:
May 25th, 2018 at 2:10 pm
Native of Pittsburgh and of mostly Scottish descent. A reading of the history of the early settlement of Western Pennsylvania shows that the majority of the first settlers were Scottish, Presbyterian as well. (Most of the colleges and universities in Western PA were established by this group in order to provide training for clergy). So there is much early Scottish influence here including the spelling of Pittsburgh (which would have been pronounced Pitts-Boro as in Edinburgh capital of Scotland or Edinboro University). Undoubtedly, later German immigration influenced the pronunciation to Burg (and for a time, the actual spelling to match the pronunciation).
Mark:
June 30th, 2019 at 8:45 am
People dont realize, western PA was built by Celtic people, both Scott and Irish. Later, they were squeezed out of the area, and just followed the mountain range south.
Linda Wilson:
December 24th, 2019 at 5:55 pm
Nib nose and nubby are very commonly used in WV/the mid-Ohio Valley as well. (About 2 hrs south of Pittsburgh.)
Richard Miller:
March 3rd, 2020 at 5:10 pm
I first heard this term from a friend who was born in western Pennsylvania, so no surprise there. I was born in the eastern part of the state and never heard it before – no surprise there either. As for living in Pennsylvania, as James Carville once said, “well, between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, you’ve basically got Alabama.” I think he was talking about the vote, but the analogy works for a lot of things, I’m finding out.
Mark Cousins:
March 25th, 2020 at 7:31 pm
I’m from Newcastle in Northern England and neb is used for nose. Hence nebby is someone who is nosey.
Suzanne:
July 11th, 2020 at 9:11 pm
I grew up in northwest Ohio and my mom was from central Indiana. We used nibby and nib nose and also nib-nosing as a verb. I still use it and my kids know what it means.
Melanie Olivas:
July 23rd, 2020 at 12:16 pm
As kids, we were called “neb-sh*ts” by adults that caught us “nebbing around” other people’s things!!!! Never heard anyone say it other than my family.
Melanie Olivas:
July 23rd, 2020 at 12:20 pm
BTW….my family was from Alexandria, Indiana with some roots from Pennsylvania and West Virginia.
Timothy Stever:
September 26th, 2020 at 11:07 am
Grew up in central PA, first heard “nebby” in Carlisle, a little east of center. It was clearly nebby and not “nibby”. I had to ask what it meant. Moved to Pittsburgh in the late 80’s and didn’t have to ask when I heard it there!
Khem:
October 2nd, 2020 at 2:39 pm
I grew up in Bradford County PA (Northeastern border next to NY). The farm folks referred to nosy people as being “nebby” and my mother picked that up rather quickly after we moved there, as she used to refer to the ducks and chickens as “nebby” when they flocked up to the house, standing by the front porch, stretching their necks as if looking for us to come out and give them a handout. (Our chickens were all treated as pets).
Lisa Busch:
February 28th, 2021 at 4:00 pm
This discussion is a fabulous etymological study of nib/nibby/neb/nebby/nib-nose and my favorite nib-sh– (I’d forgotten that one) in the US. My family is from Guernsey Co, Ohio and my sister, cousin and I were talking a few years after college and realized we’d all had the exact same experience when we told someone they were nibby in college. People thought we were nuts – never heard of the word.
Now that I am deeply in to our genealogy, all of the above information made perfect sense. Our Leeper ancestors were the ones John (2018) and Mark (2019) referenced. Nearly all of Liberty Township, Guesrney Co. Ohio was settled by the Scots-Irish from Co. Antrim and Co. Down. The Leepers settled first in western PA and came west to Ohio when the president started offering land patents for 80 acres at $1.25 per. It was a good deal.
I suspect that many of the folks all over the country who have had similar experiences with the word come from pockets of Scots-Irish ancestry – that Celtic connection with the word nose. Incidentally, in Scotland a nibby is a hooked staff used in shepherding. Could be some connection to that too – shape of nose or hooking it into someone else’s business.
Thanks for the stories. I hope people keep them coming!
Michael Minor:
April 7th, 2021 at 7:47 pm
My wife who just passed away at 77 grew up in South Charleston, WV. She often used the word “nibby.” When we first met, I told her that is was not a real word. After years of hearing her use other words that I had never heard, I finally did some research in an Elizabethan English dictionary. Nibby and all of the other words that were new to me but were well used by my wife seem to have grown out of Scots, Irish, English dialects that were preserved longer in Appalachian Mountain areas before satellite TV and radio signals penetrated the mountains and caused archaic words to be lost to the “standardization” of American English.
Dori:
August 26th, 2021 at 2:40 am
I grew up in southern NJ (Vineland, Cumberland County). My mother would always tell us to ‘stop being such a nibby-nose’. I totally forgot until I ran across this article.
Carma:
October 5th, 2021 at 9:16 pm
I grew up in Eastern Ohio about 1 1/4 hours SE of Pittsburgh, near Wheeling, WV. Nibby and nib sh** were commonly used in our home. We were Italian and Belarusian immigrants, but I suspect we learned English from the coal miners in the area. Later on I’d say nibby in Columbus OH and friends would ask what I was talking about.
MC:
March 17th, 2022 at 2:54 pm
I am from Wheeling, WV. The word “nibby” was very commonly used, along with nib-sh*t. I went to college in Virginia (UVA), and when I used the word “nibby”, I was countered with puzzled looks and told there is no such word. Then several years later I moved to Pittsburgh, where I still live. In Pittsburgh I was introduced to the term “Nebby”, which I had never heard of, even though Pittsburgh is about 75 min from Wheeling. Of course when I grew up Pittsburgh was a long way off. Pittsburgh people didn’t go to Wheeling, and vice versa. I quickly learned that “nebby” and “nibby” were the same things. I thought maybe they were Yiddish words, and never considered a Scottish origin. I am glad I decided to look it up online (another thing we would never have dreamed of doing when I grew up!)