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}.