Dibbs

Part of speech: noun, interjection

Definitions

1. An informal call that reserves something for yourself before anyone else can take it
2. A playful assertion of a right to something, made by announcing it before others do
3. Informal claim staked on an item or place so that no one else takes it first

Etymology: "Dibs" is a claim staked on something, usually by saying the word first, and its origin is genuinely unsettled. The most widely cited candidate is "dibstones", the small counters used in an old children's game of the same name, whose pieces were presumably grabbed or claimed in turn. Other suggestions link it to "dib", meaning to tap, or to a northern English "dip", a small hollow in the ground, though neither has a clear route into the word. The term has been recorded since the early 1800s. The word "dibbs" is simply a variant spelling of the same term, and it has no separate history of its own.