Did you possibly mean nibbling?
Etymologies
- Coined by linguist Samuel E. Martin in 1951 from nephew/niece by analogy with sibling. (Wiktionary)
Examples
“A friend has a hypernym for niece-or-nephew: "nibling".”
“Now, because it is needlesse to proceede any further, then what hath beene already spoken: let mee onely tell you (over and beside) and commit it to memorie, that the nature of meetings and speeches are such, as they ought to nippe or touch the hearer, like unto the Sheepes nibling on the tender grasse, and not as the sullen Dogge byteth.”
“Although not hungry in the usual sense of the word, I had begun to grow rather empty, and was nibling out of a box of Chocolates when Sis came.”
“Rabbit behavior My 12 week old lop ear house rabbit has a thing about nibling my son and she hurts him. how can i stop her from doing it coz he is now starting to get scared of her. i tell him its a sign of affection and i dont want him scared of her please help”
“1720: Thy Turphie-Mountaines, where liue nibling Sheepe,”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘nibling’.
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Talk like frindley
Suggestions of frindley idioms that have caught your eye but which aren't yet listed, perhaps because I'm blind to their frindley-ness, are welcome.
i'd feel like a r..., yikes, crikey, i am affronted, way too much, grr, pompous old git, whiz-bang super-d..., especially devast..., evensnog, schopfling, nibling and 36 more...
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new words
words/phrases I believe are made up. Then again, I believe in, well, let's not get too familiar...
wonderlucious, yummylicious, relicious, um-er, lotharia, multislacking, lossy, nibling, despringerize, pterabyte, noodlesphere, dogmo and 57 more...
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Words that really aren't words
but I like them just the same.
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adtsunami's list
AD's Faves for Non-Sesquipedalians!
bonus, cacophony, produce, marine, autumnal, avuncular, sesquipedalian, nibling, peripatetic
Tweets
Looking for tweets for nibling.
frindley A useful collective term for nieces *and* nephews. As in, "My sister brought the niblings to town for Christmas so they could catch up with their aunty." Derived from "sibling".
I believe there are instances of it being used online (or reported online) as far back as 1994. I first came across it c. 1997.
And I suspect "nibling" takes the prize for the word that has the greatest number of independent "inventors". Everyone seems to think they made this up!
(The real-time twitter examples are just misspellings for "nibbling".) Jun 10, 2009
frindley Yes, and an uncle too. Oct 2, 2008
pterodactyl Frindley -- I think I follow you, but I'm not sure. Do you now consider yourself an aunt? May 11, 2008
sionnach That says to me that there is a deeply compelling logic in the construction as well as a deeply compelling need for the word.
Yeah. It's similar to ensnorkelled in that respect. May 11, 2008
asativum sionnach & sarra: Many thanks! Were we in the same room, I'd stand and give you a novation. May 11, 2008
jruberto Ok, so i'm the 100th monkey. Or maybe the 1,000th. It is one of those things that is so sensible that it wills itself into existence. May 11, 2008
sarra It's not in the roots of uncle, Asativum; nuncle is just a variant, though you're (partly) on the right track as to how it came about: I'm not sure the history of apple contains anything directly akin to napple, but orange has n- roots which persist today (Spanish naranja for instance). The process you describe is metanalysis. May 11, 2008
sionnach Nuncle Lear, nuncle Lear,
tarry and take the fool with thee!
A fox, when one has caught her,
And such a daughter,
Should sure to the slaughter,
King Lear, act I, Scene 4
('nuncle' appears many times in the play) May 11, 2008
asativum Isn't there some suggestion that the word uncle was once nuncle, and eventually transformed in the same way a napple became an apple? Or have I been had by spurious etymologistifiers again? May 10, 2008
frindley Before my niece was born, when I had only nephews, I considered myself an uncle. May 10, 2008
pterodactyl This is slightly off-topic, but it's worth mentioning: a friend of mine calls her cousin's children her niecelings and nephewlings. She, in turn, is their auntlet.
I, myself, have a nephewling (my cousin's cute little son Elijah). Apparently, this makes me an unclet. May 8, 2008
reesetee Haha! I like those even more! May 8, 2008
mollusque When they were younger, I called mine niecicles and nephules. May 8, 2008
sionnach Others have been there before you, jruberto. many of my friends use this term. See also:
nibling May 8, 2008
frindley Now this one's interesting, because I made it up too. And it was some years ago now, my niblings are aged between 10 and 15. Then someone else I know made up the exact same word, quite independently of me; and now jruberto, and it appears dontcry. And even a quick fossick on the interwebs suggests that we are not alone. Not in the slightest.
Wiktionary cites examples dating back to 1989. Urban Dictionary gives it some cred. And the really cute thing: in 2004 a group of English schoolchildren lobbied to have the word admitted to the OED. (Shades of Andrew Clements's Frindle in that story.)
But that's a digression; my main point is that I don't think I've come across a word that is so consistently and independently invented by so many people. That says to me that there is a deeply compelling logic in the construction as well as a deeply compelling need for the word.
So why isn't it in the OED?? May 8, 2008
reesetee They sound...tasty. ;-) May 8, 2008
jruberto Ok, I made this one up.
Gender-neutral pronoun for a niece or nephew. If your brothers and sisters are siblings, then... May 8, 2008