chawmp n. university of florida 16 or 18 bits half of a machine
   word. this term was used by forth hackers during the late 1970s/early
   1980s; it is said to have been archaic then, and may now be obsolete. it
   was coined in revolt against the promiscuous use of `word' for anything
   between 16 and 32 bits; `word' has an additional special meaning for
   forth hacks that made the overloading intolerable. for similar reasons,
   /gaw'bl/ spelled `gawble' or possibly `gawbul' was in use as a term
   for 32 or 48 bits presumably a full machine word, but our sources are
   unclear on this. these terms are more easily understood if one thinks
   of them as faithful phonetic spellings of `chomp' and `gobble'
   pronounced in a florida or other southern u.s. dialect. for general
   discussion of similar terms, see nybble.


see also:
nybble