In The New York Times, Ben Schott explains how the above abbreviations—obsolete neologisms, really—were used in the days of the telegraph
Snippets, globbets, chunks, crumbs, fragments, morsels, smidgens, pieces, scraps, dollops, droplets, excerpts, sprinklings, specks, shards, iotas, scintillas, bits, bobs, dribbles, motes, soupçons and whits.