CanineSupervisor:
hakman123: a horse does not "eat" the bit
On the contrary. You obviously have never had a horse or been around one.
Horses are notorious for "chomping" their bits, especially when they are impatient or straining against it. This means they chew on it...It makes a horrendous noise when they crunch on the metal. When they bite down on a bit with their back teeth, they are hard to control.
My Paint and Quarter both do it. Why I switched to a Hackamore.
The term "chomp at the bit" refers to someone waiting impatiently for something.
Verb
chomp at the bit (third-person singular simple present chomps at the bit, present participle chomping at the bit, simple past and past participle chomped at the bit)
You clearly do not understand the point being made.
Yes - horses grind their teeth on their bit all the time - especially when getting flighty and impatient, that is where the human term comes from - to be getting impatient for action.
The question is - do we call it chomping or champing? Yes you can find a bunch of references on the internet to support "Chomping". But is still meant to be "Champing". Americans are probably one of the worst at bastardising the English language - they change stuff all the time - and after long enough everyone agrees that is correct - and so Americans have a new word for it because they all agree it is the "right" way to speak.
For hundreds of years - horses have "Champed" at the bit. As discussed - the intransitive verb "to Champ" does not need an object to Champ on. It means to grind the teeth noisily. On nothing or on a bit.
Suddenly in the last few years it has been accepted as "Chomping" at the bit -- when Chomping is a transitive verb -- ie. it needs a target object. You can chomp on an apple, you can chomp on a sandwich -- in the process of eating it. You don't just Chomp on nothing. But you CAN Champ on nothing.
My original point was - if enough people keep saying it wrong for long enough -- eventually it starts to become accepted.