cob
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /kɑb/
enpr: kŏb
ipa: /kɒb/
rhymes: -ɒb
Forms: form: cobs
Etymology: Of uncertain origin. The word has many disparate senses, which are likely of diverse origin. The specifics of these origins have long been debated, as has the question of which senses arise from which origins. At least the swan sense originated in Middle English cobbe (“male swan; gang leader; bully”). Some other senses likely originated as a variant of cop (“head, top, peak, summit”). In other senses, the word may be related to cub, itself of obscure origin but possibly from Old Norse kobbi (“seal”). However, many alternative etymologies have been proposed to account for some or all senses of cob; various sources have related it, for example, to English cot (“cottage”), Welsh cob (“top, tuft”), or German Kübel (“large container”). All these etymologies are disputed, and the exact origins of cob cannot be known with any certainty.
Senses: examples: text: The grains, each of which is about the bulk of the largest marrowfat pea, are placed all round a stalk, which goes up the middle, and this little stalk, to which the seeds adhere, is called the Corn Cob.
ref: 1818, William Cobbett, A Year’s Residence in the United States of America, part I, Clayton and Kingsland, page 18
text: I passed some mills in which the grain, cob, and husk were all ground up together for the cattle and hogs….
ref: 1849, Charles Lyell, A Second Visit to the United States of North America, volume II, Harper & Brothers, page 64:
text: Dad had placed a cob of corn on a stump for the jays, who bickered over it non-stop.
ref: 1994, Douglas Coupland, Life After God, Washington Square Press,, →ISBN, page 80:
glosses: A corncob.
examples: text: Examining the cob of the plants now in seed, I found them very full of fine seed.
ref: 1807, General View of the Agriculture of the County of Essex, page 14:
text: The following analyses exhibit the composition of the ash of the grain and cob of three specimens, grown on different soils, in Lewis county, in 1847
ref: 1849, New York (State). Legislature. Assembly, Documents of the Assembly of the State of New York, page 742:
text: About the end of October last, as an experiment, I selected seed from a Hickory King cob of above and planted twenty rows with from twenty to thirty seeds in each row, rows three feet apart.
ref: 1909, Cape of Good Hope (Colony). Dept. of Agriculture, Agricultural Journal of the Cape of Good Hope - Volume 35, page 108:
text: One of the branches developed into a fully-formed cob, though it was thinner than the normal cob of the variety.
ref: 1931, Indian Botanical Society, The Journal of the Indian Botanical Society, page 22:
glosses: The seed-bearing head of a plant.
examples: text: Thy plumbs are fair indeed, but void of taste; And those large thick-shell cobs the teeth will guast.
ref: 1782, John Nichols, A select collection of poems, page 123:
text: This kind of husk also protects the nut from birds, for titmice (Parus) have been observed to pass over filberts, and attack cobs and common nuts growing in the same orchard.
ref: 1868, Charles Darwin, The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication, volume I, John Murray, page 357:
text: Pickled walnuts are excellent if you can get hold of green walnuts, but other green nuts – hazel, cob, filbert – can be used instead.
ref: 1979, Jocasta Innes, The Country Kitchen, Frances Lincoln Limited, published 2003, →ISBN, page 257:
text: The nuts of the filbert are slightly longer and narrower than the cob.
ref: 2009, Carleen Madigan, editor, The Essential Guide to Back Garden Self-Sufficiency, Timber Press, published 2010, page 145:
glosses: Clipping of cobnut.
examples: text: In all common streams, and private waters, when cygnets are taken up, the owner of the cob must chuse the first cygnet, and the pen the next, and so in order….
ref: 1664, John Witherings, “The Orders, Laws, and Ancient Customs of Swans”, in The Harleian Miscellany, volume VII, published 1810, page 292:
text: The cob waddled out onto the island and looked in the nest.
ref: 1970, E. B. White, The Trumpet of the Swan, HarperCollins, published 2000, →ISBN, page 22:
text: The cob will defend the nest and the eggs.
ref: 2008, Nicole Helget, Swans, Creative Education,, →ISBN, page 22:
glosses: A male swan.
examples: text: Here is also the pica marina or seapye many sorts of Lari, seamewes & cobs.
ref: 1668, Thomas Browne, "Notes on Certain Birds Found in Norfolk", in Notes and Letters on the Natural History of Norfolk, Jarrold & Sons (1902), pages 8–9
text: On Saturday the 28th we saw a whale, two sea-wolves, and two penguins; in the afternoon there appeared great numbers of ospreys, and sea-cobs, and we met with some sea-grass, with long leaves.
ref: 1773, Antoine-Joseph Pernety, The History of a Voyage to the Malouine (or Falkland), page 178:
text: We found here a species of cob, with a grey head, red beak and feet, very much resembling our larus ribibundus….
ref: 1820, Sir Richard Phillips and Co. (tr.), Travels in Brazil (in New Voyages and Travels, volume III), translation of Prince Maximilian of Wied-Neuwied, Reise nach Brasilien (1817), page 21
text: The Raven has a very ancient look about him, as if he could tell a lot if he thought proper, but the Cob looks weird and uncanny, as if he was continually thinking over the creatures that he had seen go down to Davy’s locker.
ref: 1895, A Son of the Marshes [Denham Jordan], The Wild-Fowl and Sea-Fowl of Great Britain, Chapman and Hall, page 312
glosses: A gull, especially the black-backed gull (Larus marinus); also spelled cobb.
glosses: A lump or piece of anything, usually of a somewhat large size, as of coal, or stone.
examples: text: The cob was a cracknel or simnel made of fine flour.
ref: 1877, Mackenzie E. C. Walcott, The Early Statutes of the Cathedral Church of the Holy Trinity, Chichester, J. B. Nichols and Sons, page 38:
text: …I sat there and broke the crust of my cob of bread.
ref: 1958, Brendan Behan, Borstal Boy, Nonpareil, published 1982, →ISBN, page 86:
text: I want to do a manual job / Even bake a lovely bread cob
ref: 2005, Sheila Dunwell, “Progress or Less”, in Poetry—Love It, Hate It, Read It and See, AuthorHouse, →ISBN, page 85:
glosses: A round, often crusty roll or loaf of bread.
examples: text: The poore Cotager contenteth himſelfe with Cob for his wals, and Thatch for his couering….
ref: 1602, Richard Carew, The Svrvey of Cornwall, new edition (1769), page 53
text: The walls are of cob, the external ones being about 2 feet 8 inches thick, and rest on a stone foundation.
ref: 1889, T. N. Brushfield, "The Birthplace of Sir Walter Raleigh", in Reports and Transactions of the Devonshire Association for the Advancement of Science, Literature, and Art, volume XXI, W. Brendon & Son, page 323
text: …cob falls outside the building code, so planners would want documentation of how the adobelike material performs.
ref: 2007 October 6, Cecelia Goodnow, “Thinking of Building a Cob Home?”, in The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, page E8:
text: Some tests have been carried out to evaluate the stabilizing effect on cob of modern materials such as gypsum, lime and cement (McPadden & Pavia 2016).
ref: 2018, Ine Wouters, Stephanie van de Voorde, Inge Bertels, Building Knowledge, Constructing Histories, volume 2, page 790:
glosses: A building material consisting of clay, sand, straw, water, and earth, similar to adobe; also called cobb, rammed earth or pisé.
examples: text: If he comes to you riding a cob…
ref: 1828, Winthrop Mackworth Praed, "A Letter of Advice", in The New Monthly Magazine and Literary Journal, volume 23, part II, S. and H. Bentley, page 543
text: He was well-mounted upon a sturdy chestnut cob, and had the graceful seat of an experienced horseman….
ref: 1841, Charles Dickens, “Barnaby Rudge”, in Master Humphrey’s Clock, volume II, Chapman and Hall, page 289:
text: I reined in my impatient cob, and turned round.
ref: 1888, Rudyard Kipling, “The Phantom Rickshaw”, in The Phantom 'Rickshaw and Other Tales, Allahabad: A.H. Wheeler and Co., page 15:
text: Freize rode a strong cob and led a donkey laden with their belongings.
ref: 2012, Philippa Gregory, Changeling, Simon Pulse,, →ISBN, page 36:
glosses: A horse having a stout body and short legs.
examples: text: …he put his Hand in his Pocket and pull’d out ſome Gold, ſome Broadpieces and a Gold Cob….
ref: 1701, Daniel Mac-Cay, testimony in the trial of Patrick Hurly, transcribed in A Complete Collection of State-Trials, and Proceedings upon High-Treason, and Other Crimes and Misdemeanours, volume 5, 2nd edition (1730), page 404
text: They fancied, that he who sold a Stone of Wool for Two Cobs, callid 9s. when Cobs were raised would sell his Stone for a Cob and a half when called 9s.
ref: 1718, Observations on raising the value of money, page 4:
text: As this sum was greater than ever Swift had been master of at any one time before, he pushed over, without reckoning them, a good number of the siver cobs (for it was all in that specie) to the honest sailor, and desired he would accept them for his trouble.
ref: 1774, J. Hawkesworth, “An Account of the life of Dr. Swift”, in The Works of Jonathan Swift, page xx:
text: He then drew out a large leathern bag, and poured out the contents, which were ſilver cobs, upon the table.
ref: 1784, Thomas Sheridan, The Life of the Rev. Dr. Jonathan Swift, Dean of St. Patrick’s, Dublin, volume I, pages 7–8:
text: Our fituation every day appears more alarming, there being a scarcity of almost every thing in the garrison — fire-wood a cob per hundred; flour five rials per pound; no fresh meat except an old cow, or worn-out ox, (only one perhaps killed in a month) which is sold at four and a half and five rials per pound; fowls twenty to twenty-four rials each; a goose ten dollars; a turkey twenty dollars; eggs a cob the dozen; and every other necessary in proporition.
ref: 1793, Samuel Ancell, A circumstantial journal of the blockade and siege of Gibraltar, page 24:
text: Several of the artillery officers, the Welch fusileers, and a few navy officers, spent the evening at a tavern, well known by the name of Miss Loftus's; on payment of our reckoning, Captain Wilcox was deficient a cob (value about four shillings and ninepence) the payment of which, was offered to him by a Mr. Funston, a lieutenant fireworker;
ref: 1795, Mark Moore, The Memoirs and Adventures of Mark Moore Late an Officer in the British Navy, page 49:
text: It’s absolutely possible to find an affordable ($20-$35) low to average circulated Spanish silver cob dated around or before 1692, especially if you’re willing to settle for the smaller half real or one real cobs.
ref: 2006, Todd Cook, The Lost Coins of Early Americans: Still A Secret!, Xulon Press,, →ISBN, page 90:
text: Cobs were usually irregularly shaped. They were a means to account for a specific amount of silver in a coin that could be used for commerce.
ref: 2008, Alvin Rabushka, Taxation in Colonial America, Princeton University Press,, →ISBN, page 154:
glosses: Any of the gold and silver coins that were minted in the Spanish Empire and valued in reales or escudos, such as the piece of eight—especially those which were crudely struck and irregularly shaped.
examples: text: I ſaw fleſh bluddie toe ſlauer, / When the cob had maunged the gobets foule garbaged haulfe quick.
ref: 1583, Richard Stanyhurst (tr.), The First Fovre Bookes of Virgils Æneis, Henrie Bynneman, page 86
text: But I would not haue a few rich cobs to get into their clowches almoſt whole countries, ſo as the poore can haue no releefe by them.
ref: 1583, Phillip Stubbes, The Second Part of the Anatomie of Abuses, N. Trübner & Co. (1882), page 27
text: There comes no good of greedie Cobs:
ref: 1602, Tudor Facsimile Texts:
text: For fishing and shuting, he was the cob of all this country!
ref: 1827, anonymous angler quoted in William Hone, The Every-Day Book, volume II, part II, Hunt and Clarke, page 769
glosses: One who is eminent, great, large, or rich.
glosses: A spider (cf. cobweb).
glosses: A small fish, the miller's thumb.
glosses: A large fish, especially the kabeljou (variant spelling of kob).
examples: text: The first red herring that was broil’d in Adam and Eve’s kitchen, do I fetch my pedigree from, by the Harrot’s book. His Cob was my great-great-mighty-great grandfather.
ref: 1598, Ben Jonson, Every Man in His Humour, in The Modern British Drama, 3rd volume, James Ballantyne and Co. (1811), page 5
text: …not a Scrap of him, but the Cobs of the two Herrings, the Fiſhermen had eaten, remained of him….
ref: 1599, Thomas Nashe, “Lenten Stuffe”, in The Harleian Miscellany, volume VI, published 1745, page 156:
text: …he can come bragging hither with foure white Herrings (at’s taile) in blue Coates without roes in their bellies, but I may ſtarue ere he giue me ſo much as a cob.
ref: 1605, Thomas Dekker, The Honest Whore, in The Dramatic Works of Thomas Dekker, 2nd volume, John Pearson (1873), page 147
glosses: The head of a herring.
examples: text: Perhaps though in time one may make them to yield, But 'tis pretty'st Cob-Castle e'er I beheld.
ref: 1689, Charles Cotton, Poems on Several Occasions, page 197:
text: There is a small cob on this hill by some supposed to have been a fort: if it was, it must have been a very small one; tho' I rather take it for a tumulus than an exploratory tower.
ref: 1768, Philosophical Transactions: Giving Some Account of the Present Undertakings, Studies, and Labours, of the Ingenious in Many Considerable Parts of the World., page 114:
glosses: A tower or small castle on top of a hill.
examples: text: Who can make the worm a cob to thresh the mountains, and beat them small, and make the hills as chaff.
ref: 1667, John Wilkins, A Discourse concerning the Gift of Prayer, etc, page 59:
glosses: A thresher.
topics: entertainment
lifestyle
music
glosses: A cylinder with pins in it, encoding music to be played back mechanically by a barrel organ.
examples: text: […] but he does not say whether the nobleman is a mulatto or half-caste, or what advantage is to be derived from purchasing a cob belonging to "a dark-brown nobleman."
ref: 1885, Stanley Harris, The Coaching Age, London: R. Bentley and son, page 237:
text: The young mother was darker than either of her parents, and might be taken for a cob (the offspring of a mulatto and a negro), but the baby looked to be almost pure Indian.
ref: 1902, Bulletin of the American Geographical Society, page 214:
text: A cob is a reversion towards the negro, the child of one black parent with a mulatto, three-quarters black and hardly distinguishable. The mustee or quadroon, who is three-fourths white, and the costee or octoroon may be considered[…]
ref: 1912, James Rodway, Guiana: British, Dutch, and French, page 190:
glosses: A person of mixed black and white ancestry, especially a griffe; a mulatto.
Coordinate terms: sense: person of mixed race
word: list in mulatto
Derived terms: cobby
cobette
cobful
cobhouse
cobiron
cobless
cobswan
cobwall
cobwork
corn-cob
corn on the cob
have a cob on
maize on the cob
maize-on-the-cob
sea cob
Welsh cob