cobbler
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈkɒblə/
ipa: /ˈkɒbələ/
ipa: /ˈkɑblɚ/
ipa: /ˈkɑbəlɚ/
rhymes: (Received Pronunciation) -ɒblə
rhymes: (General American) -ɑblə(ɹ)
Forms: form: cobblers
form: cobler
Etymology: Inherited from Middle English cobeler, cobelere (“mender of shoes, cobbler”) [and other forms]; further origin unknown. The word appears to be derived from an early form of cobble (“to mend roughly, patch; (specifically) to mend shoes, especially roughly”) + -er (suffix forming agent nouns), but is attested much earlier than the verb which suggests that the verb may be a back-formation from cobbler.
Sense 2 (“sheep left to the end to be sheared”) is a pun on cobbler’s last (“tool for shaping or preserving the shape of shoes”); while sense 3 (“clumsy workman”) is derived from cobble + -er: see above.
Senses: examples: text: This honest Cobler has done what he might: / That Statesmen in their Shoes might walk upright. / But rotten Shoes of Spannish running-leather: / No Coblers skill, can stitch them strong together.
ref: 1647, Jerome Bellamie, “Postscript”, in Theodore de la Guard [pseudonym; Nathaniel Ward], The Simple Cobler of Aggawam in America. […], London: […] J[ohn] D[ever] & R[obert] I[bbitson] for Stephen Bowtell, […], →OCLC; The Simple Cobler of Aggawam in America (Force’s Collection of Historical Tracts; vol. III, no. 8), 5th edition, Boston, Mass.: […] Daniel Henchman, […]; [Washington, D.C.: W. Q. Force], 1713 (1844 printing), →OCLC, page 58:
text: [W]hat would they think of a French cobler cutting ſhoes for ſeveral of his fellow-ſubjects out of an old apple-tree?
ref: 1710 February 21 (Gregorian calendar), Joseph Addison, “The Free-holder: No. 15. Friday, February 10. [1710.]”, in The Works of the Right Honourable Joseph Addison, Esq; […], volume IV, London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], published 1721, →OCLC, page 414:
text: All honeſt jogg trotmen, who go on ſmoothly and dully, and write hiſtory and politics, and are praiſed; and who, had they been bred coblers, would all their lives have only mended ſhoes, but never made them.
ref: 1766, [Oliver Goldsmith], “The History of a Philosophic Vagabond, Pursuing Novelty, but Losing Content”, in The Vicar of Wakefield: […], volume I, Salisbury, Wiltshire: […] B. Collins, for F[rancis] Newbery, […], →OCLC, page 5:
text: But what of that vast number of the human kind who were always in the background? What of the hewers of wood and drawers of water, the swineherds, the shepherds, the carpenters, the hedgers and cobblers?
ref: 1922, Eleanour Sinclair Rohde, The Old English Herbals, London: Longmans, Green and Co., page 13:
synonyms: word: botcher
english: obsolete, one sense
translation: obsolete, one sense
word: chuckler
word: lad of wax
word: shoemender
word: souter
word: waxie
word: waxy
coordinate_terms: shoemaker
cordwainer
glosses: A person who repairs, and sometimes makes, shoes.
topics: agriculture
business
lifestyle
glosses: A sheep left to the end to be sheared (for example, because its wool is filthy, or because it is difficult to catch).
examples: text: Truely Sir, in reſpect of a fine Workman, / I am but as you would ſay, a Cobler.
ref: 1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i], page 109, column 1:
glosses: A person who cobbles (“to assemble or mend in an improvised or rough way”); a clumsy workman.
Derived terms: Cobbler
cobbler, keep to your last
cobbler's
cobblership
cobbler's pegs
cobbler's punch
cobblery
let the cobbler stick to his last
the cobbler always wears the worst shoes
the cobbler's children are the worst shod
the cobbler's children go barefoot
Related terms: cobblestone
cobble-stone
cobbling
gentle craft