Knabism

Doing/saying something socially awkward or outwardly obvious to fill silence.

In queue at a cotton candy stand, a knabism would be to ask the people in the queue in front of you: "are you buying cotton candy"

In a high-school literature class, after having studied the Grimm brothers, a knabism would be to ask if the Grimm brothers wrote Shrek.

by L'ecuyer de Godefroy October 24, 2011